The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord
by The Distorted Shadow
Summary: When Emiya Shirou chose to give up and allow himself to be consumed to stop Gilgamesh from escaping destruction, he never expected to find himself in another world. Now in a world filled with demons and terrorized by a Tyrannical Despot, he has found a place to fulfill his dream of being a hero and saving everyone. It's just a shame everyone he's saving is completely insane.
1. Chapter 1

Okay... I know people are probably going to be pissed at this... but I don't feel like writing for my current fics right now so I've decided to post this as it's own thing.

But anyway... first things first...

1\. I am **_not_** going to try and shoehorn the Disgaeaverse into Nasuverse systems, it is much simpler to just do it the other way around.

2\. This does **_not_** follow any of the Disgaea storylines and characters from the games will only appear 'post-game'

3\. If you don't like the idea of the Nasuverse being overpowered by the Disgaeaverse, then just leave... now. Disgaea characters can casually destroy planets and pull off whatever insane bullshit they want to for special moves.

Anyway... now that those points are out of the way...

Let's get this show on the road.

* * *

Emiya Shirou couldn't stop a groan of agony from escaping his throat as his consciousness returned to him.

The process was slow as his body screamed in protest at every miniscule movement as his mind slowly processed what had happened to him.

Gilgamesh.

He had fought Gilgamesh and finally realized his reality marble, though he had needed Rin's prana to actually use it due to sheer lack of experience and power on his part.

But he had won.

He had taken the arrogant kings arm and then just as his reality shattered, the Servant had started to form a hole in space… and the ancient king had tried to take him with him.

He remembered fighting the pull for a little while before realizing that his foe might actually escape destruction if he kept pulling… and so he gave up.

He had let himself get pulled into the mass of darkness and that was the last thing he remembered.

He had to get up.

He had to search for his enemy.

He had to find out exactly what had happened and why he was still alive.

So he pushed.

He pushed as hard as he could and slowly but surely, he started to rise.

His body protested every ounce of energy he put into it, he felt like he was going to fall apart at any moment but that was nothing.

He had to rise up because if he didn't then who would stop Gilgamesh?

He managed to get his knee under him and he finally gained stability… and so he opened his eyes.

What he saw was not what he was expecting.

Wherever he was, it was lush, green and littered with ruined architecture that looked like it was straight out of a manga… something that should've been impossible to create and yet here were ruins of those very same impossible structures.

However that wasn't what really caught his attention, no, what truly caught his attention was the fact that there were _two_ suns in the sky… and they were just sitting right next to each other.

His mind reeled at the single, logical conclusion of that astrological evidence… he wasn't on Earth anymore.

Somehow he had been transported to another planet and he was now trapped away from home, on an unknown planet with the ruins of some great civilisation and he had no idea where his foe was or how he was going to get back home.

Honestly this was now officially one of the worst days in his life and given that he had had a piece of shrapnel impale him through the spine that was actually saying something.

But he had felt worse before, especially when he fought Archer, in that fight his body was burning, his muscles felt like they were ripping and he was pushing himself far beyond his breaking point for the sole purpose of not giving in to the future version of himself.

So he pushed himself further, feeling his muscles scrap against each other as he prepared himself to continue the fight with the golden hero.

He couldn't stop himself from feeling both relieved and disappointed when he realized that the arrogant hero was nowhere to be seen.

But he couldn't let himself relax and fall, he didn't yet know where he was or if it was even safe to stay here.

"Yo dood, what're doing here dood?" his mind focused sharply upon hearing an unfamiliar voice and he turned his head to look towards whoever was speaking to him, only to find nothing at face level.

He then looked lower and found himself blinking in disbelief as he began to wonder if he was suffering from exhaustion induced hallucinations.

It was a penguin.

And not just a normal penguin but a blue, peg legged, stuffed penguin with a satchel located at the waist, the worst part was that it was looking at him and blinking.

He couldn't stop himself from staring as it stared back before tilting its head and opening its mouth.

"Uh, are you all right dood?" he was certain his jaw dropped at the absurdity of this situation… at least until the pain he had been ignoring became too much and he started to crumple despite refusing to fall.

"Uh, I guess I'll take that as a no dood," the creature said once more and Shirou found himself wondering just why it was saying dood constantly.

"Well I guess I should take you somewhere safe, right dood?" he felt himself frowning at that before feeling the little peg legged creature lift him above its head much to his surprise.

As he watched the scenery go by, he found himself wondering just how much more complicated his life had just gotten.

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

Shirou felt his eyes open upon the morning light hitting his face.

Looking around the room, he found himself recognizing the simple but warm décor and soft furnishings that he had been living with for the past week.

Rising from the bed he had been given, he started to work out some kinks that had developed overnight before getting himself dressed for his morning routine.

The house he was currently recuperating in was small, just a hut with a living room with a cooking fire in the centre, two bedrooms located off the living room and a single small bathroom with a bathtub heated by a fire.

So it was a rather simple home but it was at least comfortable and more importantly, he had managed to recover from his fight with Gilgamesh while he was here.

Leaving the house, he proceeded to walk over to the nearby forest and silently projected a simple axe as he started to cut down a tree or two for the fires.

"Emiya-san, what do you think you're doing?" a voice that had quickly grown familiar to him called out from behind him and he found himself freezing mid swing.

Turning around he looked at the owner of the voice.

His name was Trey and he was short, short enough that he only came up to Shirou's shoulder, he was also very thin and had greyish blonde hair tied into a pair of pigtails and a pair of pointy ears.

The fact that the boy wore what was essentially a strapless white dress that pooled at his feet had made identifying him as male rather difficult at first.

Of course, he wasn't complaining about being brought here, that much was for certain given how the boy was literally capable of using healing magic strong enough to fix him up in a second.

The part that took a while to get used to was the massive handcuffs and the barbs that caused the young boy to bleed everywhere and soak his dress crimson near the bottom.

He had tried to convince the boy to stop wearing such self-destructive clothing but had failed due to the boy being unprepared to not punish himself for his sins.

"Uh, I… um…" he tried to think of a way to say he was going to cut down some firewood without actually saying that.

"You were going to cut down a tree weren't you?" the boy stated with narrowed eyes and he found himself grimacing as he gave a nod of confirmation, "how many times do I have to tell you… leave it to the Prinny, it's supposed to be working to pay off its sins so doing its job for it is making having it pointless."

Shirou grimaced at that statement.

He had been told that the blue penguin like thing was what was called a Prinny and that it was the soul of a dead human put in a vessel and working for its chance at reincarnation.

"Sorry, it just doesn't feel right to leave everything to it," even now he still didn't know what gender the Prinny actually was, the fact it wouldn't tell him only made him feel more depressed at having to called it 'it'.

"The more work you take from it, the longer it'll take for it to reincarnate," the boy stated firmly, "do you want it to suffer even longer than it has too?"

That was true, he had actually seen the contract signed for ownership of the Prinny and despite how unfair it looked to him, the fact that he had discovered it was a _standard_ contract for a Prinny made him reluctantly accept the situation.

Emphasis on the reluctantly.

"Prinny!" the boy called out, causing the peg-legged creature to appear and give a firm salute.

"Yes Master dood!" the response was enough to make Shirou feel his annoyance at the creature's situation stir up again… it was pretty much slavery as far as he was concerned after all.

"Stop lazing around and get some firewood ready," the blonde boy stated seriously, though admittedly the voice was still rather soft compared to most of the males he knew.

"Yes dood!" and with that the little penguin like creature rushed up to the tree he was about to cut down before pulling a large axe out of the satchel and starting to hack into the tree.

Shirou still didn't know _how_ it managed to hold the handle when all it had was a pair of flippers.

"It doesn't feel right to not do anything," he found himself admitting as he watched the dead person doing the job he was about to do.

"… then you can go into town and get some food for dinner," the boy stated with a small grin, "after all, you're a hell of a better cook than the Prinny."

"Sorry Dood!" the penguin shouted from its position next to the tree.

"Uh, yeah, sure," he acknowledged, he guessed that going into town wouldn't be so bad, the last time he had gone there things had been pretty nice… hard to adjust to but nice none the less.

"Good," and with that the little boy gave him a purse full of money and he started on his trip to the nearby town for groceries.

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

The nearby town of Borque was a nice little hamlet completely in keeping with the house he was now living in, simple, made mainly of stone and wood.

It gave off the impression of a stereotypical medieval English settlement whenever he saw it and made his curiosity about the ruins increase even further.

What sort of disaster had befallen this world to end whatever civilisation had created such impressive structures?

"Hello Emiya-kun, here alone today?" a friendly and effeminate voice called out causing him to look towards the owner.

It was taller than him, had a friendly smile adorning their feminine face, a slender figure that was shown off by the lack of clothing it wore and most importantly, it was a plant.

As in, it had a pair of flowers instead of hair, green skin, a large bud and a root forming its lower body and he had even been told that it was technically both male and female due to the whole fact it was a plant.

"Ah, hello Adari-san," he answered upon remembering the name of the creature that had called out to him, "I'm just here to get some groceries."

The first time he had come to this town he had been shocked to the point where he was about to trace Kanshou and Byakuya due to the sheer number of inhuman creatures he had seen on his first view of the town.

That was when Trey had finally told him where he was.

This was one of a near infinite number of Netherworlds that existed in the multiverse… it was literally a world of demons.

He had nearly hyperventilated at that but had managed to hold off on attacking any of the demons that resided there.

Eventually though he came to conclusion as he interacted with the demons and started to learn a little about their culture.

Demons weren't Evil.

Sure most regularly _tried_ to be evil since that was what their culture expected of them, but they were surprisingly less capable of committing evil than a typical Magus was… let alone a Dead Apostle or an Ancestor.

That realisation had cause him to relax around the beings that he thought he should very well be scared half to death of.

"Oh? Is that so?" Adari was what they called an Alraune and seemed to be exceptionally pleasant towards him, "do you need any vegetables?"

It also ran a vegetable stand in town, even priding itself on growing the oranges from its own body.

The fact that Adari seemed happy with the idea of people eating parts of itself was something he didn't think he'd ever get used to… or the fact it couldn't tell the difference between fruit and veg despite being one itself.

"Yeah," he admitted as he started to view what was on offer, not that anything was on sale, he'd quickly come to realize that demons didn't make things cheaper for any reason except legislation, which meant everything was always being sold at full price no matter when he showed up for it.

"Take your time Emiya-kun," the friendly plant said with a smile, "I'm sure you'll find something you want… have you tried my oranges yet?"

He found himself freezing at that, unsure whether or not he should be blushing right now.

"Uh… no?" he didn't know how he should react to that question and decided to just tell the truth despite how much it disturbed him to do so.

"Would you like to try one?" Adari asked with a sly smirk on its face as he found himself unsure whether or not to back away from the plant-like demon.

"I-I'm fine, thank you Adari-san," he answered as he continued to look at the selection in an attempt at pushing past any embarrassment he might feel.

"That's a shame," the demonic plant responded with a sigh of disappointment, "I'm very proud of my Oranges."

Shirou was already aware of that fact but hearing it from the mouth of the demon itself didn't help him from feeling uncomfortable.

Eventually though he managed to find himself picking out a decent selection of fruit before moving on and preparing himself for the significantly less awkward matter of buying some meat.

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

Returning with the groceries, Shirou found himself releasing a sigh at the strain interacting with so many demons brought about.

He was honestly left with the belief that there wasn't a single sane demon out there from what he had seen here.

That's not to say it was a bad thing because they weren't really malicious, just weird and that made it safe but also stressing dealing with them.

"I'm back," he called out easily as he walked towards the kitchen.

"I'll take those off you dood," he found himself frowning as the Prinny that lived with them immediately showed up and took the groceries he had just bought.

Honestly the fact that he was expected to leave everything to the Prinny was one of the worst parts of appearing here.

He _needed_ to help people, sitting around doing nothing went against the very fabric of his existence.

It actually made him wonder just how much better he'd be as a Prinny instead of a Counter Guardian.

He released a sigh of defeat as he dismissed that thought from his head. Everything was just going too smoothly and he was now wondering if he'd ever manage to help anyone again.

And with that thought, he started back towards the house in the hopes of being of some use during his stay here.

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

Shirou released a sigh as he once again projected Kanshou and Byakuya in an attempt at keeping his skills at least in working order.

He couldn't help but admit that he was definitely finding it easier to project them now that he knew the trick to projecting weapons.

He just had to select them from the Unlimited Blade Works and use the copy as a base instead of trying to go through the steps he had previously used.

The main problem though was that there was a part of him, a part that had synced with EMIYA that told him he was missing an important aspect of the Reality Marble.

But he just couldn't figure out what it was he was missing and so he dispersed the constructs.

"AAAHHH!" Shirou found himself rushing without thinking upon hearing a scream resounding through the area.

Sure it sounded like a Prinny but he didn't care what it was he was saving, it just needed to be saved.

He idly wondered how stupid he would look if he came barrelling into the area and it turned out Trey was just forbidding it from eating but he didn't care, someone cried out and he didn't intend on abandoning them!

Finally reaching the area of the cry he was greeted by the sight of a red imp and a group of small, pig-like Orcs surrounding the Prinny as they attacked it mercilessly.

"Stop it!" he called out as he rushed the group, Kanshou and Byakuya firmly back in his grip as the group of aggressors turned to face him.

"Wha-GYARH!" one of the Orcs started to speak but it was too late as the flat of Kanshou impacted with its face.

"Shirou Dood!" the Prinny cried out in clear joy at his presence, "you came to save me dood!"

"Yeah," he nodded in acknowledgement as he noted the way the demons that had been attacking seemed to jerk back in shock, "just leave this to me."

"What the…?" the Imp sounded completely confused at it stared at him like he had grown another head, "are you for real?"

"Risking your life for a _prinny_?" one of the orcs he hadn't smashed in the face seemed just as confused.

"Yeah, so what?" Shirou spoke up with narrowed eyes.

"W-why?" the confusion was still there, "they're just worthless criminals, they don't deserve to be protected."

Shirou simply narrowed his eyes in response to that claim.

"So what?" it was a simple response to that question, "he needs help and I'm here."

The group once again seemed to recoil at his claim and he took that time to analyse their weapons and add them to the Unlimited Blade Works.

The history of the weapons immediately made him nervous.

The speed and force with which they had been wielded was greater than what he could bring to bear himself but it wasn't quite on the level of a Servant, meaning he had the skill to overcome that speed and power with Technique.

Especially given how he was using the style developed by Archer for the very purpose of facing those stronger and faster than him.

Of course, there was the issue that these demons had one major advantage against his style… their lack of skill.

How was he supposed to use intentional openings against them if they were too brutish to aim for them?

"Ah screw this!" one of the Orcs finally cried out before charging at him with its club held high.

Shirou honestly found himself blinking at that, it was moving much slower than he would expect from its weapon's history… but he kept his wits about him.

The strike was as fast as he anticipated but despite that, he managed to deflect it somewhat and landed a counter slash on the Demon's shoulder.

He found himself blinking as it fell down from that single strike.

"Wha? That asshole killed bro!" one of the other Orcs cried out and Shirou found himself trying to comprehend exactly what was going on as the other Orcs started charging him.

He once again found himself struggling to comprehend exactly what was happening as he prepared himself for the attacks of his aggressors and countered efficiently, angering even more of them as they quickly dropped like flies much to his confusion.

His instincts burst to life and he dodged backwards just before a pillar of fire erupted from where he had previously been.

"Dammit!" the Imp cried out angrily as Shirou turned his attention to it and realised that he wouldn't be capable of reaching it without going through the Orcs.

That is if it wasn't for one thing they didn't realise.

His weapons were expendable.

And so he threw the twin blades in his hands at the correct angle to converge upon the red creature, earning several looks of disbelief before one of the Orcs let out a mocking laugh.

"Hahaha! Did you really just throw away your swords?" it spoke in clear amusement, unaware of the blades ability to attract each other.

"So, you're giving up eh?" the Imp said with a malicious grin before finding it's sides impaled by three feet of cold steel, "w-what?"

"Eh?! How'd you do that?!" one of the orcs cried out in clear shock upon discovering that their apparent leader had just been impaled by the very swords their opponent had thrown.

Shirou simply smiled before tracing another set of blades now that he didn't have to worry about them interfering with the trajectories of the first two... he had honestly been expecting his foes to try and attack him while he had been disarmed but they were clearly too arrogant for such a manoeuvre.

"Grr… Dammit! Retreat!" one of the Orcs cried out causing the rest to break formation and start running away, "I'll remember this you stupid Prinny hugger!"

Shirou had to blink at that term… he didn't hug Prinnies.

"Thank you Dood!" the Prinny that had previously been getting beaten up cried out in clear happiness at being saved.

"Uh… it's no problem," he responded uncertainly… honestly it had all felt pretty anti-climactic to him given how hard a fight he'd been expecting off the group.

"You don't look too good dood!" the Prinny continued to say and he looked at it before giving a mirthless chuckle.

"Sorry, I'm just surprised by how weak they were," he admitted much to his own embarrassment.

"Well what did you expect dood?" the Prinny said with confusion clear in its tone, "they were like the tutorial targets dood."

Shirou was about to respond when his mind finally processed what the Prinny had just said.

"Tutorial Targets?" that term confused him.

"Yeah, they're the enemies you face while you learn what you're doing dood!" the little blue penguin stated clearly.

"The world doesn't work like that," he told the encased soul easily.

"Yeah, I used to think that too dood," the Prinny said as it nodded sagely, "now I know better dood."

Shirou could do little more than frown at that claim as he shook his head clear of the thoughts that had previously been plaguing him.

"Well, I guess you're capable of looking after yourself if that was anything to go by," he heard the familiar voice of Trey as he walked towards him and the Prinny.

"Yeah," he admitted as he watched Trey come to a stop not far away, "do you know why those guys were here?"

It was a simple yet very important question and he found himself frowning when the healer nodded easily.

"Yeah, those guys were the minions of Vile Plotz, so they were probably here to kill everyone," Shirou found himself staring blankly at the boy.

First of all, he just casually admitted that those guys were there to slaughter everyone and second…

"Vile Plotz?" he couldn't stop himself from asking with a hint of disbelief.

"He's the Overlord of this Netherworld," Trey explained easily.

"… and his name is Vile Plotz?" Shirou didn't know if he should believe it or not given how it sounded like the name of a Tokusatsu show villain.

"Yep," the instant, response was said with a blank stare and Shirou found himself releasing a sigh.

"You're screwing with me aren't you?" he asked seriously.

"Nope, his name really is Vile Plotz," the blonde boy answered seriously.

"Why?" he couldn't stop himself from asking in disbelief.

"Well you see, when Mister and Missis Plotz got together," Trey started to explain and Shirou found himself cutting the guy off.

"That's not what I meant!" this was just one of those situations that he found himself struggling to cope with… now if the Overlord had been some ominous figure, wreathed in Darkness with some dangerous and powerful esoteric ability the that would be fine.

But he just couldn't accept that Vile Plotz was his actual name… or that the guy was stupid enough to use such a name in their conquest.

"Okay… so are you going to go save the village?" the while clad demon asked him easily.

"W-what do you mean save the village?" he asked with a dread swelling up in his stomach.

"Well, the main force is attacking it right now so I thought you'd want to deal with that?" Trey stated bluntly causing his eyes to widen in shock at the calmness he was stating it with.

"Wha-? Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" he couldn't stop himself from crying out in displeasure at the blood covered boy who simply shrugged.

"Well, if you're going to make it in time then you're going to make it in time and if you're going to be too late then you're going to be too late," the Healer stated easily, "so are you going to take the dimensional gate?"

"Dimensional Gate?" Shirou didn't know what the healer meant by that until he looked in the direction the healer was pointing and seeing some sort of portal.

"It'll take you where you need to go," Trey stated with a shrug.

Shirou didn't waste any more time as he sped towards the portal and passed through.

Immediately his nose was assaulted by the all too familiar scent of burning as his eyes were assaulted by the heat and fumes created by the pillars of fire that engulfed the town.

Looking around he saw that walls that had previously stood had been torn down, stalls that used to line the street were now knocked over and broken with some burning like the majority of the houses.

Shirou felt his teeth grit at the scene.

The only redeeming factor he could see was the lack of bodies but he quickly started moving to find survivors or enemies because he doubted it would remain this way for long.

Searching through the area he quickly came across a sight he wasn't all that surprised to see.

Adari was standing in the middle of a large street, fighting off several foes without too much difficulty.

"Enough!" his ears were assaulted by a feminine cry as the attackers started to back off, "must I do everything myself?!"

From beyond the grunts a girl appeared and Shirou wondered just why she was here.

She looked to be a couple of years younger than him, something, he had to remind himself, meant she would probably be somewhere in the region of fifteen _hundred_ years old, and had short black hair in a bob cut with a pair of rather prominent, bull horns coming from the side of her head and tanned skin.

Her slitted yellow eyes held a clear malevolence in them that directed itself at Adari while her deep purple dress was highlighted with gold trimming.

The worst part of this girl though was probably the gun holstered on her hip… because unfortunately he was unable to read its history and so he was left with no idea what sort of fighter this girl was.

"You!" she cried out to Adari who stood firm, "how dare you stand against my father!"

Well, that explained why this girl was here then.

"Given that it's either stand against him or die… I'm inclined to pick the option that has me live a little longer," the plant person answered easily enough.

"Grrr!" the purple clad demon growled out before speaking up once again, "fine then! I, Lotsa Plotz, the first daughter of Lord Vile Plotz shall destroy you for your insolence!"

Shirou couldn't stop himself from gaping at the girl.

How could she keep a straight face with a name like that?

No, he couldn't let himself get distracted… he needed to get his head together and stop this girl and her forces.

So he did the first thing that made sense.

He traced Caladbolg and twisted it into a partially familiar spiral shape before notching it into a freshly traced bow.

Focusing on the Noble Phantasm, he charged it to its breaking point before releasing the string and watching as the projectile flew straight at his target fast enough to leave a distortion in the air around it.

"Wha?" the girl had no chance to finish her cry of surprise before the twisted sword struck her dead in the face and exploded with enough force to level a graveyard.

He released a sigh of relief as he saw the minions being thrown about by the force of the explosion and smashing against the buildings that were still standing.

"Okay! Who the hell tried to blow me up?!" his eyes widened in shock at the angry call from within the dust of the explosion before it was blown away by a clearly irate female demon.

He swallowed nervously at the sight before him, not just because she had managed to survive his attack, even Berserker had lost a life to the same attack pulled off by Archer, but also due to the face that outside of a small cut, singed hair and being covered in dirt… she appeared to be unharmed by his strike.

It was obvious to him now that she was in a completely different league to the Orc's and Imp he had fought earlier.

"Eh?!" the surprised cry of Adari sounded and he noticed it looking towards him before it blinked, "eh? Emiya-kun?"

"Grrr…" the growl escaping the lips of Lotsa Plotz drew his attention, "so you're the little asshole that tried to blow me up!"

He didn't wait another second before tracing Kanshou and Byakuya in preparation for the upcoming fight, there was no way he was going to have an easy time here… he considered the possibility of even dying here but he knew that if he did that, then there would be no one left to stop this demonic girl.

He just hoped he _could_ defeat the monster before him.

* * *

And that's all for now.

Until next time...

Shadow out.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, here is the next chapter.

First things first though, I'm going to answer a couple of reviews:

Firstly, to everyone talking about how Caladbolg damages things and how it negates durability, all I have to say is "Disgaea doesn't care". In Disgaea, there **_are_** attacks that warp space to inflict damage, there are attacks that throw people into stars, there are attacks that cut dimensions... none of it matters because in Disgaea, _**everything** _ is cosmetic. That is why I decided it was easier to simply put the Nasuverse in the Disgaeaverse instead of the other way around, because as far as Disgaea is concerned it can all pretty much just be summed up as "who cares about consistency, we're pretty much just actors in a game anyway".

In simple terms, Rules are Flexible.

Now onto specific reviews:

salomjesus3: Yes, all the characters before the 'endgame' will be OC's... I know there are people who probably won't like that but that's the way it goes.

Masterx01: I did specify 'casual' planet buster. If you want to include such things as DarkDeathEvilman wiping out half a galaxy with a single attack then feel free, I was just pointing out that the destructive level of Disgaea is much higher than the Nasuverse.

EddyQ: I decided to post this as its own fic because I already had this chapter written and decided that I would make this on official story instead of just a first chapter in my WIP collection.

Tama Saga: What do you expect? Disgaea is full of Genre Savvyness and 4 wall Awareness/breaking... and it's only going to get worse in this chapter.

0-0 b: Shirou couldn't copy the Onyx Blade, mainly because Gigs is a person first and a sword second. As for Zetta, I prefer him as a humanoid... especially when Petta is around for him to worry about.

duskrider: I will admit, that D2 is one of the games I haven't played. Mainly because my ps3 died before it came out and I haven't subscribed to PSNow since it as released on there... thinking of changing that but I have plenty of other things to finish anyway.

Anyway... now that that is over... let's just get on with the fic.

* * *

Emiya Shirou braced himself as he continued to watch his new foe.

He didn't know if he could possibly defeat this creature, after all, if she could shrug off Caladbolg like it was nothing then he didn't know if he had anything in his Reality Marble that had the power to inflict any real damage on her.

Holding the Black and White Swords in his hands, he prepared himself to defend himself as soon as this demonic girl moved.

He wasn't a fool, he may have been reckless and have practically zero sense of self-preservation when it came to saving people but he wasn't an idiot.

He knew that he was no match for a normal servant, he knew that despite looking like a teenage girl, this demon was likely not far off one hundred times older than him and significantly more powerful.

However, none of that mattered when the lives of others were on the line and with Adari in the area, he was not going to retreat even if it cost him his life.

"Emiya-kun, you really shouldn't be here," the very same plant demon spoke up with a shocking lack of concern over the situation as a whole.

"Adari-san… get out of here," he said with complete seriousness in his tone as he refused to take his eyes of the foe before him.

He was almost distracted by the sigh of exasperation that came from the plant demon.

"Emiya-kun... she's so far beyond your level that I'm impressed you could even scratch her," he found himself swallowing nervously at that reminder but refused to do anything more than steel himself for the upcoming confrontation.

"I know," he admitted without preamble as he started to wonder why the enemy wasn't attacking yet.

He almost blinked in surprise when she proceeded to look rather condescendingly at her watch before releasing a sigh and looking at them.

"Are you two quite finished chatting yet?" Lotsa Plotz proceeded to call out with irritation clear in her tone, "I'm on a deadline here."

"Yeah yeah," Adari responded with a rather dismissive gesture before moving in his direction and moving past him, "well Emiya-kun, let's just hope you've got some serious plot armour… because you're gonna need it."

He found himself blinking at that claim.

What did Adari even mean by that?

He soon found the plant-like demon leaving the area while the gun toting girl did nothing to try and stop it.

"Now, are you quite finished?" he found himself frowning once more as he got into a defensive posture.

"Why are you even asking that?" he honestly couldn't fathom why events turned out the way they did.

"Because I'm beginning to get really annoyed that you keep wasting my time like this!" once again, Shirou found himself frowning in confusion at the demon princess's complaint.

"But why _are_ you waiting for me in the first place?" it was something he just couldn't understand, didn't pragmatism dictate that you attacked your foe when they were least expecting it?

"Because unlike _you_ ," she seemed to make certain she spat out the 'you' in a very accusatory manner, "some of us are not so uncouth as to interrupt an expository scene."

He once again blinked in disbelief.

"I… I'm sorry… but did you just say that you didn't attack because it would be _impolite_?" he couldn't wrap his head around that… she was a demon so why did it matter if she was impolite or not?

"Are you ready or not already?!" she shouted at him with her face taking on a rather red hue at his questioning and he found himself deciding to do something that could prove rather underhanded given this girl's current methodology.

"Uh… no?" he lied, wondering if she would take that at face value and wait for him some more or if she'd just lose it and attack him regardless.

"THEN HURRY UP!" her frustration was clear to him and he found himself silently thanking whatever deity was listening for her to be so gullible.

He quickly found himself searching his reality marble for weapons that could potentially harm the girl in front of him and he found himself internally frowning as even the most powerful blades he possessed would likely do little more than scratch her if a Broken Caladbolg could barely do anything.

However he soon picked out one blade in particular, one that he had probably gotten from his brief period spent inside Archer's own version of Unlimited Blade Works.

Hopefully this would be capable of cutting the girl at the very least.

So he prepared his Magic Circuits in preparation to call forth the blade before charging at the demon princess.

She seemed to blink in response to his charge before scowling and raising her gun, prompting him to cross Kanshou and Byakuya in front of him as he continued his charge.

He had only one shot at this after all.

There was a thundering shot as the demon girl pulled the trigger and Shirou immediately regretted trying to block the attack.

Kanshou and Byakuya may have only been C- rank Noble Phantasms but they were noble phantasms none the less.

And they had been shattered like nothing by whatever bullet struck them.

To make matters even worse for him, the force of the strike had numbed his arms and enough force had made its way past his defence to nearly crush his ribcage and knock him back several feet.

"… is that it?" the demonic girl sounded almost disappointed in how little he managed to do before her.

He gritted his teeth as he considered the cost of his Reality Marble's limitations.

If he had known how powerful that weapon was then he would've dodged it or at the very least used a shield instead of his swords.

At least he had managed to give Adari a chance to run away.

But what did that chance really mean in the grand scheme of things? How far could Adari get before it was caught again?

Shirou once again gritted his teeth as he forced himself to get up despite the pain he was currently in… he had to at the very least stop this foe.

"Oh? Getting up?" the gun wielder seemed almost amused by his attempt at standing before levelling her gun at him once again, "we'll soon fix that."

Shirou found himself immediately pulling Rho Aias from his reality marble and using it to block the next shot, cringing in pain as the first three petals were shattered in an instant.

It honestly made him wonder just how he managed to survive the first strike.

"Eh?" his ears caught the sound of the demon girl and he looked towards her to see her staring at his shield with… were those _sparkles_ in her eyes?

"You! What is your name?!" the Purple dressed girl demanded of him.

"E… Emiya, Shirou," he gritted out through the pain, silently wondering if he'd have any chance of surviving this encounter or if this was as far as he could go against demons.

"Hmm… can you fix that pink thing?" her question made him frown… did she mean Rho Aias? "well? Can you or can't you?"

"D-do you mean Rho Aias?" he tried to clarify, earning a confused stare from the horned girl.

"Is that what you call the pink thing that blocked my shot?" okay, so she definitely meant Rho Aias.

"Y… yes," he admitted to her, causing her to nod before frowning.

"Wait… did you mean yes that is what you call it or yes you can fix it?" it was actually rather disturbing to be in this situation… she held the clear advantage and seemed to have no intention of finishing him off.

"And what do you think you're doing young lady?" a new voice cut through the air and Shirou found himself gritting his teeth yet again as the girl proceeded to let out an 'eep' as someone appeared behind her before Shirou could even process the stranger's sudden appearance.

The fact that the demonic girl looked absolutely terrified of this stranger only made Shirou even more nervous at their sudden appearance.

"S-S-Sebastian?!" she seemed shocked to see him and due to her moving to face the stranger, Shirou finally managed to get a good look at them.

They were surprisingly short, only being about five foot if his estimate was right, however the stranger definitely had a more mature complexion, nothing that would indicate he was out of his prime but more than enough to indicate he wasn't young.

Beyond that, he wore what appeared to be a relatively standard butler uniform while his red hair was slicked back.

Nothing about his appearance screamed threatening but Shirou found himself unable to do anything but stare as he was confronted by a pressure that made him wish he was facing down Berserker alone and without magecraft.

"Your father expressly stated that you were to return on the hour," the butler stated firmly, "it is currently over three minutes past the hour and you still have not returned."

Three minutes?

This monster showed up because she was a mere _three minutes late_?

Shirou suddenly found himself feeling completely inconsequential as he considered how powerful this 'Vile Plotz' person must be to have a monster like this working for him.

"B-but!" the purple dressed girl stated only to be cut off the stranger.

"It is obvious that you do not grant your father the respect he deserves," the redheaded butler stated with closed eyes before opening them to reveal orbs of scarlet on black, "you are to return immediately to face a punishment deemed suitable by your father."

"Y… yes Sebastian," the gun wielding girl deflated as the stranger grabbed a hold of her and vanished in an instant.

Shirou could do little more than grit his teeth as he finally allowed Rho Aias to disperse… he had managed to survive thanks to pure luck and the timely intervention of an even more powerful enemy.

He needed to find a way to get stronger and quickly at that.

But right now, he needed to get back to Trey and get healed before he died of internal bleeding.

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

Shirou could do little more than grimace as he was finally healed up by the boy that had taken him in when he had first appeared in this world.

Despite everything, he had been pretty much completely useless against Lotsa Plotz and she was clearly outclassed by that Sebastian person.

The worst part however, was probably the whole fact that he didn't know of any way that could allow him to even come close to those monsters even with the rest of his life to train.

"What's wrong Emiya-kun?" he found his attention drawn towards the familiar face of Adari as the plant demon spoke up.

He had been somewhat surprised to discover that it had decided to take refuge at Trey's house but it was a rather nice sight that reminded him that his pain hadn't been for nothing.

"Sorry," he decided to apologize, "I guess I'm just not strong enough to face those guys."

He felt his depression return full force.

He honestly couldn't think of a way to stop Vile Plotz army, not when it had such immensely powerful monsters like that amongst its members.

"So what?" he found himself blinking at Adari's question, "you survived your last encounter."

"Because of pure luck," he pointed out bluntly, causing Adari to snort in amusement.

"It's called plot armour," the flower like creature stated easily, "it just means you're a main character."

Shirou couldn't stop himself.

He just stared at Adari blankly as he tried to comprehend just how distorted someone has to be to believe such a thing.

"Adari… plot armour isn't real," he once again spoke bluntly, earning an amused smirk off the demon.

"If you say so," the way the plant like creature said that was probably one of the most condescending tones he had ever heard… and given that he had been friends with Shinji, that was really saying something.

"So, what are you planning on doing now?" Shirou found his attention drawn back to Trey as the little medic stood there with an amused smile on his lips as well.

"… I don't know," he honestly didn't know what he _could_ do right now.

He definitely wanted to fight the Overlords army but he had just learned that he wasn't even remotely close to anyone important when it came to power despite being pretty certain that the typical foot soldiers weren't any real threat to the world given how easily he had dispatched some of them.

So what use was he really?

Once again he found himself trapped in a situation where he was massively outclassed and would have to rely on another achieve his goal of saving as many lives as possible.

"I want to help fight this guy… but…" he trailed off as he made that admission, despite how hard he had worked, despite having a reality marble filled with legendary weapons that he could use effectively… he was still powerless before these enemies.

"You don't stand at chance at your current level," Trey stated easily and he nodded in acknowledgement, "well we'll just have to fix that won't we."

Shirou found himself looking at the healer in disbelief.

Did Trey really think he could get strong enough to stand against those monsters?

"And how am I supposed to get strong enough to face them?" he asked cautiously, earning a grin off the healer.

"By forcibly reincarnating you of course," the boy answered with amusement clear in his tone.

Shirou for his part could only stare at him in confusion.

"Wouldn't that mean killing me?" he asked bluntly, earning a sigh of dismay from the other boy.

"No, it just means dismantling your body and rebuilding it around your soul," the blood soaked healer answered easily, "though we'll probably have to do it a few times to get you a good base."

Okay, now Trey had completely lost him.

"Why does getting reincarnated multiple times matter?" surely reincarnation was meant to reset his existence each time.

"Because we're talking about forced reincarnation, not natural reincarnation," that made him frown, "natural reincarnation is meant to reset you… forced reincarnation is meant to use your current power to empower your base."

Wait… using his current power to improve his base?

"So… if I did this… how strong would I be?" he asked nervously, earning a shrug off the duo.

"Probably a little weaker than you are right now," Adari admitted easily, "but you'd soon grow stronger."

Okay, so weaker in the short term, stronger in the long term.

There wasn't really a choice to be made here.

"All right," he looked at the little cleric with resolve clear in his eyes, "let's do it."

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from frowning at his new body.

It didn't look any different to how it did before but something felt… off.

"Something feels wrong," he admitted with a frown, earning a small chuckle off the plant like Adari.

"That's probably because of your level limit being removed," Trey answered with a shrug, "before you were near your limit, so getting used to having it raised is going to be weird for you to start with."

Shirou once again found himself staring blankly at the other boy, it was almost like he thought this was some sort of video game with the way he was talking.

"That makes no sense," he stated bluntly, earning a shrug off the boy.

"Well it makes sense to me," the demonic boy responded without hesitation, "just because you have no idea what we're talking about doesn't mean we're not right."

Shirou honestly didn't know how to respond to that. It wasn't like he could disprove that claim and he had no idea of what was happening to him so he was just going to have to accept it.

It still made no sense however.

"Okay, fine," he conceded before deciding to ask an important question, "so how long will it take to train myself for the upcoming battles?"

"Dunno," he had to blink at that. He had no idea how long it would take to get back up to his previous level and that was completely powerless before that Lotsa Plotz girl who was clearly below that Sebastian character.

And if he was right, then Lord Vile Plotz was likely to be on an even higher level than Sebastian.

He definitely had his work cut out for him right now.

"Fine, then I guess I'll start my training," he said before looking at the current area and nodding to himself as he proceeded to let himself fall into a prone position, where he immediately started to perform push-ups.

"… what are you doing?" Adari asked with clear confusion in its tone.

"Training," he responded bluntly.

"How is that training?" the plant demon asked him with a frown.

"I'm working my muscles," he pointed out with confusion at the fact the demon didn't know what he was doing.

"... does that even work?" the plant asked with even more confusion.

"Well how else would I get stronger?" he pointed out easily.

"By fighting," he had to blink at that claim.

"What?" it didn't make sense to him that such a claim would be made.

"Well, it's normal for a demon to get stronger by fighting," Adari stated with a tilt of its head.

He had to blink at that claim.

"Well, I'm not a demon," he pointed out easily.

"Yes you are," Trey piped in and he found himself freezing at that.

"… what?" that was all he could say in response to that claim.

"You're a demon," Shirou couldn't stop himself from staring at the healer.

"What do you mean I'm a demon? I'm a human," he stated easily.

"Not anymore," that claim made him frown… until he realised why such a statement could be true.

"Wait… do you mean you reincarnated me as a demon instead of a human?" he asked with uncertainty in his tone.

"Yep," the ease with which Trey admitted that made him frown, "after all, your old body was restricted by the limits set by your native universe... so turning you into a demon removed those limits."

Shirou found himself lost for words.

On one hand, he had been turned into a demon without any warning… on the other hand, since he wasn't human anymore he'd be more than capable of becoming stronger and more capable of saving people.

There wasn't really any question as to which was more important to him.

"Fine," he let the matter drop before making his next comment, "so then how am I supposed to get stronger?"

"Simple, you fight, fight and fight some more," Adari stated with an amused grin.

For his part, Shirou felt himself frown at that explanation… he wasn't used to the idea of improving because of fighting, even if he had grown immensely back when he fought both Archer and Gilgamesh.

Which actually made him frown.

Those fights were already proof that it was possible to improve over the course of a battle so why was he dismissing this explanation just because he wasn't going to have any ground breaking revelations mid fight?

"All right then, I'll give it a shot," he conceded earning a nod of agreement from the duo.

"First things first though," Trey started before throwing something at him, "gotta give you this."

Shirou caught the offending object easily before noticing it was necklace with some type of crest hanging from it.

"Uh… what's the deal with this?" he asked, earning a sigh off the duo.

"Just put it on," Trey said with a frown on his face.

Shirou didn't know what the deal with this object was but he did as he was told.

Almost immediately, he felt power flowing into him, making his eyes widen in shock at the power he now felt flowing through his body… it was clear that this object had made him stronger just by being worn but at the same time, he felt lethargic due to it.

He was about to question the tiredness he felt when the blonde boy proceeded to point his staff at him and he felt his lethargy vanish as if it had never been there.

His mind worked slowly to try and figure out what had just happened.

"An imperial seal grants you power but it doesn't reinvigorate you," the plant demon stated easily, obviously seeing his confusion at the situation.

"Ah, thanks Adari-san," was the only response he could make before clearing his head, "okay, so now I've got to find someone to fight against."

He felt more confident than he would've before, mainly due to the fact that this imperial seal was granting him enough strength that he was certain he surpassed his pre-reincarnation self in every area.

"Well, you could always find one of Vile Plotz's units and kill them," Trey offered easily.

Shirou found himself frowning at that statement.

"But what if I come across a good person being forced to fight for him?" he asked without hesitation.

"… you really don't get what these generic evil armies are like do you?" Trey asked with a sweatdrop of disbelief.

"There's no such thing as a 'generic evil army', everyone has something to fight for," Shirou pointed out without missing a beat, honestly the mere fact that the boy thought such a thing was ludicrous.

"Perhaps in a more morally complex setting, but in a place like this, there definitely are generic evil armies," the healer responded to him easily, "sure the higher ups might have more complex motivations but the grunts tend to just be puppy kicking evil."

Shirou honestly didn't know what to think of that line of thought.

Did Trey honestly think that such a situation was even remotely rational?

In the end, all he could do was stare at the guy who casually dismissed an entire army as being nothing more than a bunch of murderous psychopaths.

"… fine then," the boy relented with clear frustration, "if you see anyone that's being forced to fight against their will, feel free to try and recruit them."

He nodded in agreement.

Recruiting was fine so he wasn't going to argue with that idea.

That was when he stalled.

"What do you mean 'recruit them'?" he asked in confusion, earning a blank stare off the healer.

"If you're going to try and take down Vile Plotz, you're going to need an army," the blonde boy stated bluntly, "so recruiting his own minions into your ranks wouldn't hurt… well, as long as they're not going to turn on you as soon as it's convenient."

An army.

Such an idea had never occurred to Shirou and he found himself frowning at it.

He didn't want an army, if he was leading an army then there was more chance for the people he's supposed to be protecting to die.

"No," he stated bluntly, "I'm doing this because I want to save as many people as I can, putting them in harms way is only going to risk them unnecessarily."

"And if you fail, they're going to die anyway," Trey said with amusement in his tone, "so let them decide for themselves if they're going to risk their lives for this war."

Shirou couldn't stop himself from freezing at that statement.

While it was true, it didn't change the fact that he didn't like the idea of risking others when he could simply risk himself.

"I don't like it," he admitted.

"Well tough, you're not going to defeat Vile Plotz without help," the blonde demon stated firmly, "so either get yourself an army or fail miserably."

He could do little more than frown at that.

"I've fought his forces already, they're pretty weak so as long as I can grow strong enough to fight him then I should be fine," he pointed out without hesitation.

"… Seriously?" Adari sounded unconvinced, "haven't you ever heard of The Sorting Algorithm Of Evil?"

"The what?" there was nothing else he could say in response to that question.

"The Sorting Algorithm of Evil," the healer of the group spoke up again, "the guy's you fought were the weakest of the weak, the guys that you'll be fighting when you reach Plotz will probably be several times stronger than his daughter."

Shirou found himself unsure what to think.

It sounded a bit too contrived but at the same time, the idea that Plotz would keep his strongest minions close by made sense.

But he still didn't want to risk the lives of others in this conflict.

"I just don't like the idea of risking others," he said once again.

"You're beginning to sound like a broken record," Trey pointed out with a frown, "just get it through your thick skull that this is bigger than you and demons are entitled to fight for themselves."

"If you don't accept this… then I'll tie you up and keep you safe and warm inside my bulb," Adari stated with a grin.

"F-fine!" he may have hated the idea of risking others… but the idea of being tied up, trapped _inside_ a person _and_ unable to fight wasn't something he felt even remotely comfortable with.

"Good," Trey spoke up with a grin, "now, I've got stuff to get sorted, so why not go and pick a fight with some grunts."

And with a wave of the healers hand, a dimensional portal opened up before him, causing him to take a deep breath as he jumped through in preparation of facing whoever was on the other side.

XXX THE FATE OF A HERO COMPLEX OVERLORD XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from frowning as he returned through the dimensional gate.

He had thought Trey was exaggerating or stereotyping the type of demons that worked for Vile Plotz.

But no, these people actually _were_ kicking a puppy for no better reason than to prove themselves as being heartless monsters and completely evil… they even told him that was why they were doing it.

Honestly, he found it hard to believe such a way of thinking even existed.

"So…" Trey spoke up with amusement clear in his voice, "how did it go?"

"…" he remained silent as he walked past the healer while trying to suppress the previous encounter from his mind.

"Well come on," the blond healer spoke up again, "was I right or was I right?"

"… yes," he hated to admit it but the healer was right, this particular batch of grunts was generically evil.

"Told you so," the grin that was worn by the bleeding boy definitely fit the words he said, "anyway, we've still got to wait until Rosen Queen is set up before you can buy equipment… but at least I've managed to get someone to hire for you."

Shirou froze at that statement.

"What do you mean hire?" he asked in confusion before Trey pointed towards something and he followed it until his gaze landed upon what he was certain the healer was directing him to.

It was a male demon that looked like a stereotypical, cloak wearing cowboy from the old Western movies… with the exception of the missing shirt under the cloak that is.

"Who's that?" he asked, earning a snort of amusement off the demonic boy.

"The recruiter," it was a simple answer and Shirou found himself staring at the boy blankly once again, "what? That's his name."

Shirou seriously doubted that statement.

But it was unlikely that Trey would tell him the truth so he decided to just drop the matter and meet with the new person.

"Hello," he called out to the gunslinger who simply nodded in greeting, "I'm Emiya Shirou it's nice to meet you mister…"

"Not mister," the stranger said firmly, "I am _The_ Recruiter."

The red haired Magus once again found himself frozen in disbelief.

"T-that can't really be your name can it?" he asked in disbelief, earning a blank expression from the demon.

"Of course it can," the response was clearly annoyed but the stranger proceeded to continue with what he was saying regardless, "now are you going to recruit some one? Since it's your first time that kid over there is going to pay for it."

Shirou couldn't stop himself from staring blankly at the recruiter… he had honestly not expected to ever have such a conversation with anyone but then again, he hadn't expected to show up in a Demon Infested Netherworld that looked surprisingly normal.

"Uh… why is Trey going to pay?" he asked before realising that he hadn't actually made anything since he came to this world.

"Ask him yourself," the response wasn't something he had been expecting, "now are you going to see about recruiting someone or not?"

Shirou honestly didn't know what to do.

Recruiting demons did make some sense but once again, his desire to not put others at risk was rearing its head.

"Just get him a ranged support unit," he almost jumped upon hearing Adari behind him, "the idiot won't hire anyone unless you make him."

Turning to face the Alraune, he opened his mouth to deny that allegation but was cut off by The Recruiter.

"How does a level one blue mage named Trinity sound?" the gunner asked earning a nod of agreement off the plant demon, "all right then, I'll let her know you're going to hire her."

Shirou turned to the man as he pressed something on what he could only assume was a tablet PC.

Honestly it was actually rather weird seeing such a thing in this setting.

"Done, she should arrive in a few seconds," Shirou didn't understand what the guy meant by that… until a portal opened before him and someone stepped out.

"Hello there, you must be my new boss!" the stranger was a young girl wearing a dark blue robe and possessing vibrant blue hair and light blue eyes, "thank you for hiring me, I can't wait to die for you!"

"…"

Silence reigned at that claim.

It was at that point that Shirou decided that he was going to have a harder time saving people than he had initially expected.

* * *

And that is all for now.

Also... just to make it clear, Lotsa Plotz is actually pretty weak... more along the lines of Second Boss level as opposed to even Mid Boss Level. On top of that, she was half assing the 'fight'.

On top of that, yes, Shirou has plot armor.

What else did you expect?

Anyway, Shadow out.


	3. Chapter 3

Well... I'm back.

I won't lie, I didn't realize it had already been over a year since this was last updated.

But anyway...

On to the story.

* * *

Shirou was definitely regretting hiring Trinity.

"DIE!" he had to dodge as a pillar of ice erupted around the foe he had been directly next to.

He was certain he would have been hit if his reaction speed wasn't as impressive as it was.

"Trinity!" he called out unhappily as he looked towards the blue haired mage, "we are going to have to have a talk about friendly fire!"

He was definitely not happy with the fact that she didn't seem to care if she hit him in her attempts at defeating the armies of Lord Vile Plotz.

"All right boss!" she shouted cheerfully, "I'll make sure I hit you next time!"

He almost froze at that statement from the ice mage.

"What?! _**Don't**_ hit me!" he may not have been against giving his life to save someone… but the thought of having an ally intentionally trying to kill him in the middle of a fight with an enemy wasn't something he was comfortable with.

It reminded him too much of Archer.

Though at least Archer didn't try and kill him with a chirpy smile on his face.

"But isn't that what friendly fire is supposed to be?" the blue haired mage asked with confusion, "unless it requires fire… I can't really do that."

"Friendly fire is _**Bad**_!" he stated firmly praying he got through this situation in one piece despite her clear attempts at preventing him from doing so.

"Huh?" she looked outright confused at his declaration before she tilted her head, "but it's called _**Friendly**_ fire… so isn't it a good thing to practice?"

He could do little more than stare at her as he tried to comprehend her twisted logic… is this how Rin had felt when she confronted him after exposing himself to Gilgamesh?

If so then he would definitely have to apologize to her if he ever saw her again.

"Uh… are you finished yelling at her yet?" his attention was directed back towards his opponent, a young man who looked like a generic fighter wielding a spear.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he answered with a sigh as he found himself relieved that his enemies seemed to be rather courteous when it came to conversing with allies.

Almost immediately, the spearman charged at him and he found himself ducking forwards, under the wide swipe and into his opponent's guard where he immediately brought his blades up to strike his foe.

He wasn't surprised when his foe managed to avoid being bifurcated by his attack but he followed up and continued to keep himself too close for his opponent to effectively fight against.

"I call bullshit!" the spearman cried out and Shirou found himself inwardly acknowledging his foes claim… it really wasn't fair that he was using his understanding of the spears history to predict every move his opponent was likely to make and pre-empt them.

Of course, the fact that he was doing it subconsciously only made that particular skill even more terrifying but it really did make him wonder how he would measure up to a Servant if he wasn't so physically inferior to them.

It didn't take long for him to lead his foe into a trap, using the knowledge of the spearman's reactions and stances to lead him into a position where he would be off balance and incapable of guarding from the attack.

With a satisfying rip, he felt blood spray onto his face as he cut down the enemy, watching as they fell limply to the ground and bled out before turning his attention back towards the rest of the battlefield.

It didn't take long to determine that his foe had been the last.

"Looks like we won Boss!" the blue haired mage called out with that chirpy smile still plastered on her face… making him watch her carefully just in case she decided to attempt more 'friendly fire' against him.

"Yeah…" he found himself responding uncertainly as his suspicions about Trinity refused to leave him.

"What's wrong?" she sounded honestly confused as she asked that question, however he found himself unsure of how to answer.

After a couple of seconds that led to the blue haired ice witch frowning, he finally decided to be honest.

"I don't trust you to not try and kill me while my back is turned," his tone was blunt but that didn't make it a certainty that she'd notice.

You could never trust a demon to interpret things the same way a human would after all.

"Of course you can't trust me silly," the easy way she responded made his eye twitch at how effortless it was for her to admit she couldn't be trusted, "you should never trust a demon."

"Go," he commanded as he pointed at the portal that led back to Trey's house.

"'Kay boss!" and without any hesitation, the psychopathic girl proceeded to skip through the portal, leaving him the opportunity to walk through without having to watch his back.

What he did do however, was prepare Rho Aias in case he had to block an attack when he exited the portal.

As soon as he stuck his head out, he was ready to bring up the shield, only to release a small sigh of relief upon seeing Trinity standing there without a care in the world.

"..." he kept his silence as he stared at her.

"What's up?" Trey asked after a few seconds of watching him watch the mage.

"She tried to attack me in the middle of battle," he stated bluntly.

"They call it _friendly_ fire, so I thought it was supposed to be friendly," she responded without hesitation.

"Friendly fire is _not_ friendly," he stated firmly, earning a shrug off the healer.

"Easy mistake to make," at that declaration, Shirou found himself returning his attention to the boy that had helped him recover after the fight with Gilgamesh and get adjusted to this new world.

"How is it an easy mistake to make?" he asked with his eye twitching at the casual ease with which the healer accepted the idea that friendly fire was friendly.

"Because we're not human," the answer made him blink, "different societies, different rules, different attitudes… to us, _nearly_ killing someone can be taken as a sign of friendship since you didn't outright kill them."

Shirou had to release a sigh of defeat at that.

It probably said something about his mentality when he considered the fact that he was capable of forgetting such an obvious bit of information.

It was still quite the annoyance though.

"So… how much Hell have you got now?" he found his attention being taken off the concept of having to avoid his own minion's attacks and back to the concept of money.

Of course, the fact that these demons called their currency Hell was kind of weird, but he'd gotten used to it during his time living there.

"Maybe a few hundred," he responded as he thought about the money he had effectively been mugging puppy kicking evil soldiers for.

"What you planning on doing with it?" the white haired healer asked immediately afterwards.

"I think Trinity could do with some better protection," he immediately answered before remembering the issue at hand, "or maybe I should get myself some… armour."

He hesitated to call the stuff sold at Rosen Queen Shokai armour.

It hadn't been long after he had hired Trinity that the store had been opened and he had had his first look at the sorts of weapons he would be arming anyone that joined him with.

Most of it looked like toys, cloth or other random assortments of items.

Which is why he had been surprised when he looked at the 'toy sword'.

It had indeed imprinted itself into Unlimited Blade Works and he had been shocked to find it fitting in closer to the low tiers of Noble Phantasms in terms of raw power.

And that was without any real history of use.

It was no surprise that he had been defenceless against the Daughter of the Overlord if this was how powerful a mere _toy_ was.

The advantage to that, was that even something that looked like a piece of cloth was actually armour that could be considered on par with high end Mystic Codes or low end Noble Phantasms.

The only real downside to all of this, was the objects lack of specialized abilities, such as how none of the spears reversed causality to ensure they had already struck the heart by the time they were thrust.

It was times like this, that he wished he had gotten a better chance to synchronize with Archer, because if he had then he may have learned how to mix and match attributes of weapons to create amalgams of greater power.

And it wasn't like he'd struggle that much with the cost of projecting such things… since his forced reincarnation into a demonic body, he had quickly discovered just how quickly a demon could grow stronger.

He wasn't sure but he had the sneaking suspicion that he was now on par with Caster in terms of physical strength without using Reinforcement to enhance his strength further.

With Reinforcement, he wouldn't be surprised if he was on par with Archer at full power.

It was honestly rather terrifying that he was already potentially on par with a servant and that his magical power had grown significantly since becoming a demon.

"Well," he was drawn out of his musings as the healer spoke up once more, "I guess that would make sense… but you know what else would make sense?"

Shirou immediately found himself narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Hiring more minions," that statement from the bloodied demon had only one natural response.

"I'm not hiring more 'minions'."

"Yay! That makes me super special!" he found his attention drawn to the new cheering ice mage.

It almost made him want to hire someone out of spite.

But he resisted the urge… it wasn't like he wanted to hire Trinity in the first place so hiring someone just to stop her from feeling extra special wasn't something he should do… no matter how tempting the prospect was.

"Only because you were forced onto me," he decided to point out in the hopes that it would deflate whatever ego trip she was getting from the idea of being his only minion.

"So?" she responded without hesitation.

"Never mind," he found himself cradling his forehead in his palm as he decided to give up trying to explain anything to the horrifically naïve magic user.

"Anyway… I'm going to go and get myself some armour before Trinity kills me," and without any further hesitation, he turned to head towards the Rosen Queen Shokai.

"Kay! See you later boss!" the blue haired mage called out with her chronically upbeat manner.

Without a second thought, he simply made his way towards the store with every intention of finding something that would aid in increasing his ability to fight stronger foes.

Well, survive fighting stronger foes at least.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from feeling stupid.

Walking around in a long coat and a large sash that he wore around his neck wasn't his idea of good armour… but analysing it told him that it was probably more than enough to stop at least regular Sniper Rounds.

Honestly, he was pretty sure that if he had this back when they fought Berserker, then he wouldn't have been nearly crippled by the shard of stone that got lodged in his back.

That's not to say it looked all that impressive, if anything he looked more like a little kid who had just thrown on something because they didn't have anything else.

"Hey boss!" he found himself inwardly sighing as Trinity made her appearance once again.

"Don't… say a word," he said immediately, causing her to look at him with a blank expression as her head tilted to the side.

"About what?" her confusion was obvious, meaning she probably didn't realize what he as talking about.

"Nothing," he responded while releasing a sigh of defeat at the blue haired girls inability to act like a normal person.

The mere fact that _he_ was the one who was thinking that wasn't lost on him.

"Okay…" she didn't sound very certain but then she opened her mouth, "those clothes look silly on you."

Must not stab. Must not stab.

"Trinity… I told you not to say anything about that," he stated with frustration clear in his voice.

"Oh… so that's what you meant," she sounded like she now understood, "but if you don't like it… then why don't you just hide it?"

Shirou had to take more deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down.

"Trinity, it's not that easy to hide this sort of stuff," he pointed out with a twitch in his eye.

"What do you mean?" she sounded genuinely confused, "you just put it under your normal clothes duh."

She spoke as if it her logic was flawless, but clearly she didn't realize that so much fabric wouldn't fit without making his shirt bulge out and remain uncomfortable.

"Trinity, it won't fit," he pointed out bluntly, causing her to stare at him blankly in response.

"Why not?" she asked with her usual cluelessness.

"Because they're bigger than the clothes they'd be kept under," he stated with an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, so doesn't it make more sense to keep the smaller ones on top?" he really had to stop himself from facepalming at that.

"Trinity, physics don't work like that," he pointed out.

"Not in a human world at least," he was drawn out of his conversation by the voice of Adari calling from beside him.

"What?" he found himself asking in confusion.

"It wouldn't work in a human world but this is a Netherworld," the plant like demon stated easily, "physics here are a bit less… consistent."

That… really didn't make sense but then again, Noble Phantasms didn't make sense from a physical stand point either, so perhaps he could do to give the demonic greengrocer the benefit of the doubt.

"Fine, I'll try it," he gave in before moving towards the house, ready to get changed and hope that they weren't just screwing with him.

It honestly didn't take long for him to test what they said and he found himself staring blankly at the mirror upon finishing the test.

The large coat that had previously covered his entire form, and the sash that he had decided to protect his neck with, were now nowhere to be seen.

They were most certainly there, he could feel them pressing against his skin after all, but they somehow managed to hide under his thin, white and blue shirt without much effort.

It was genuinely surprising that it had worked, after all, back home such a thing would've never have been possible.

But then again, Adari had said that physics worked differently between the worlds, so he shouldn't be that surprised.

Releasing yet another sigh, he made his way out of the house and immediately noticed the Ice Mage being held in place by the Plant-like demon.

"What's going on," he asked with a frown.

"This one was going to do something naughty," Adari stated without hesitation, earning a pout from Trinity.

"Is peaking on him when he changes really that bad?" the response was immediately and completely shameless… and Shirou found himself more surprised by his lack of surprise than anything else.

"Yes," he stated without thinking, "how would you like it if I did that to you?"

He immediately regretted it as the girl simply gave a chirpy smile.

"If you want to, just let me know so I can put on a proper show!" he found himself internally groaning at that.

He should've seen that coming, he really should have but he had walked right into it.

"I shouldn't have asked should I?" he said with a resigned sigh.

"Why not?" the blue haired mage sounded confused.

"Look, you're not allowed to peek," he stated firmly, earning a tilt of the girls head, "no peeking… full stop."

"Why?" she asked him and he found himself wondering if he would ever be able to explain anything to her.

"Because it's bad," he stated bluntly.

"… but doesn't that mean I should do it?" her logic was completely off base but then again… she was a demon so doing bad was probably something she was expected to do.

"If you want her to not peek on you," Adari spoke up and Shirou found his attention drawn towards the plant demon, "then you could always just give her a private show."

"No!" he exclaimed immediately.

The chuckle that escaped the demon he'd known longer made it obvious it had just been messing with him and he had fallen for it hook line and sinker.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Trinity hadn't got the same message.

"Why not? That sounds like it'd be good," her cheerful expression made it clear that she really did enjoy the idea, however, that was not something Shirou was willing to do.

"Because I said no," he decided that trying to explain it would be harder than it would be worth… hopefully she'd listen to an outright refusal… not that he as actually expecting her to.

"Hmm… well… I guess you are the boss," she seemed a little downcast when she made that claim, but he wasn't going to give in on this particular topic.

At least she seemed to have given up though.

The fact that Adari was still snickering away didn't make him feel any better though.

"So boss!" the chirpiness was back and Shirou found himself narrowing his eyes at the blue haired girl, "when are we gonna go back out to fight!"

Well, that was a slightly more reasonable question.

"Have you learned your lesson about friendly fire?" he asked, causing the girl the give a large nod in acknowledgement.

"Yep!" she said without hesitation and Shirou narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"What is friendly fire?" he asked for confirmation.

"Friendly!" she said without thinking and Shirou found himself facepalming once again.

"No, friendly fire is _**not**_ friendly!" he stated once again.

He was definitely regretting letting Trey hire someone for him now.

Her response was to tilt her head yet again.

Clearly she had a few screws loose, because he was certain even he wasn't this dense and he literally had a world filled with infinite swords stuck in his head.

"…" the silence that came from the blue haired mage was telling.

And because of that, he found himself releasing yet another sigh.

"Look, don't attack people who aren't enemies," he said slowly and carefully, "if you do so, then you'll have less meat shields to protect you during a fight."

He really didn't want to use that terminology, but he had a feeling it would be necessary to get through the girls head.

The way her eyes lighted up at that explanation made it clear that it seemed to get through.

"Oh! That makes sense!" she said with a firm nod as she hit her palm with her fist, "I need more meat shields!"

He nodded in relief at the fact she finally seemed to get it.

"So, when will we get more meat shields?" she asked and he found himself cringing at that question.

"We're not," he stated firmly, causing her to frown.

"But if more meat shields are good, then why don't you get more?" she asked without hesitation and he found himself regretting using that particular explanation.

"Because I don't want to bring more people into danger," he stated firmly.

"But if they make good meat shields, then why not bring them along?" she asked him with her childish innocence still obvious in her tone.

"Because I'd rather use myself as a meat shield," he decided to say.

The look of wide eyed revelation that appeared on her face made him worry about what she was about to say.

"Oh! Sorry!" she sounded genuinely regretful, "I didn't know you were a masochist!"

He couldn't stop himself from spluttering indignantly at that proclamation.

"What?!" he honestly couldn't believe she had drawn that conclusion from his desire to not see anyone else get hurt.

"Well… if you want to be the only meat shield then doesn't that mean you like getting hurt?" she responded with her confusion still present in her voice, "and if you enjoy getting hurt then doesn't that make you a masochist?"

"I don't like getting hurt!" he exclaimed without hesitation, as much as he didn't like seeing others getting hurt when they didn't have to be, it didn't change the fact that he didn't enjoy the injuries he suffered from helping others.

"… then why don't you want other meat shields?" she asked with confusion clear in her voice.

"Because I like the idea of others getting hurt less than getting hurt myself," he stated as calmly as he could as he wondered how she was going to misinterpret that.

"…" her silence made it clear that she was confused by his claim.

"… think of me as an anti-sadist," he decided to try and come up with a way she'd understand.

"So… a masochist?" she clearly didn't understand what he meant.

"No, a masochist is a masochist," he explained while gritting his teeth, "I am the opposite of a Sadist."

"… I don't get it," her response was enough to make him release a grunt of frustration.

"Just… just drop it," he said as he gave up trying to make the girl understand.

"Well… okay," she agreed, "I still don't get it though."

"As long as you understand that I don't want others to get hurt then that's all you need to know," he said with a frown.

"Okay," and with a firm nod of her head, the girl seemed to give up trying to figure out what he meant.

Without any further comments, he found himself walking towards Trey, the blue haired mage following him with a skip in her step as she seemed oblivious to the potential danger they were about to enter.

"So… are you ready?" the little healer asked him, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the teenager, "okay… so, we currently have one of Plotz's armies attacking Little Village… you ready to try and stop them?"

Shirou found himself steeling himself at the thought of what would be happening there.

But it wasn't something he was willing to overlook right now.

"Send me there," he commanded without hesitation, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the healer who quickly proceeded to open the dimensional gate.

"Give them hell Emiya-san!" and with a wave of his hand, the little healer motioned for him to enter the gate.

Even without being told that, Shirou found himself moving through the portal and ending up at the edge of a small village consisting of mudhuts.

"Wow… this place is really crappy," the voice of his minion called out without any hesitation, "I can see why they'd want to burn it down."

He felt his eye twitch at that claim.

"That's enough Trinity," he stated bluntly, "we're here to help everyone."

"… who?" she asked as she looked around in confusion, prompting him to look himself.

Why weren't any of the houses being destroyed? And why wasn't there anyone fleeing the area or lying dead on the floor?

"HAHAHAHAHA!" a laugh came out from behind him and he immediately found himself growing cold as he recognized the voice, "so you came! I suppose paying off that spy was the right move to make!"

Turning around he came face to face with the demon that had so casually defeated him before.

The Overlords Daughter.

At least she didn't appear to be holding her gun ready this time, but she was surrounded by Imps that looked more than ready to attack at a moments notice.

"Hiyah~!" and without any more warning, he found himself watching as one of the Imps was blasted by the overly enthusiastic attack of the blue mage.

"HEY!" the Overlords Daughter cried out in anger, "the battle hasn't started yet!"

"Oh… sorry!" the immediate apology from the blue haired ice mage responded sheepishly, causing Shirou to frown at how easily she acquiesced to being told off by the demonic princess.

"Now… you there!" the horned demon commanded imperiously while pointing at him, "our previous engagement was interrupted and I am here to continue it!"

He found himself tensing as he considered the situation, she was his enemy and he knew she was far more powerful than he was.

"So… show me that pretty pink thing again!" her words cut through his mind and he found himself staring blankly at her.

"… what?" he couldn't stop himself from asking blankly.

"Wait! He showed you his 'pink thing'?!" Trinity asked with shock clear in her tone, "what was it like?"

"It was so big and hard," the response made a niggling sense of dread well up in the back of his mind, "my, it managed to withstand my attack quite remarkably!"

"Trinity… what do you think my 'pink thing' is?" he asked the blue haired girl who simply looked at him like he was stupid.

"Huh? Well… isn't it what hangs between your legs?"

"Urrk!" he could immediately hear the choking noises that came from the demon princess, "THAT'S NOT IT AT ALL!"

"Huh?" the ice mage sounded even more confused now, "but… you said it was big, hard and pink?"

"She's talking about one of my shields," Shirou found himself clarifying.

"Yes! Now show me it again!" Shirou probably wouldn't have agreed so easily if it hadn't been for Trinity's complete misunderstanding of the situation, but he found himself more than happy to turn on his circuits and respond.

"Rho Aias," it was simply said, not yelled or really even focused on, but it didn't change the fact that the giant protective barrier of seven layers appeared before him.

"… oh," the response of the mage was clearly surprised, "I guess it is pretty."

"Yes! That it is!" the tanned demon agreed enthusiastically.

"… but why would you have a shield boss?" the mage asked him with confusion clear in her tone.

"Trinity… just drop it," he commanded, earning a frown off the girl.

"But why would a masochist like you want a shield?" he wanted nothing more than slap his face in despair.

"M-masochist?!" great, now he had the demon princess thinking he enjoyed pain.

"I'm not a masochist," he stated bluntly, "she just doesn't understand the idea of an anti-sadist."

That seemed to draw a thoughtful expression from the demonic girl.

"Does that mean you like making others feel good or hate seeing other get hurt?" he had to blink at her question and found a sense of relief flood him from the fact that he wouldn't have to deal with another person like Trinity.

"The latter," he acknowledged, earning a slow nod of understanding from the girl before she let out a pout.

"That's bad," she proclaimed immediately and Shirou found his eyes narrowing.

"Is it?" the blue haired girl asked immediately and Shirou found himself narrowing his eyes at the situation.

"Yes," the princess responded without hesitation, "for it means that he will never agree to become mine!"

Well… that was certainly something he could agree with her on.

"Uh… boss lady," one of the imps spoke with clear hesitation, "can we attack them yet?"

"Not yet," she responded with a sigh of annoyance, "now you… uh… what is your name?"

He found himself swallowing uncertainly as he gave his response.

"Emiya Shirou," it was short and simple, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the girl that had asked him.

"Very well then," the woman said before turning to her minions, "I want Emiya Shirou alive, do what you want with the other one."

"YES BOSS LADY!" the group of Imps responded immediately even as the dress wearing demon princess proceeded to move out of the area with a casual gait that made it clear she felt no threat from him.

Not that he could blame her for dismissing him after the last time they had gotten into conflict with each other.

Even if he had grown more powerful since his loss to her, it didn't change the fact that the gap before had been enormous, so all he was doing was catching up to her.

"So… what do we do now boss?" Trinity asked and Shirou found himself simply looking at the enemies as they prepared themselves to attack.

"We beat them," he stated firmly, "as long as that girl isn't here, we should be fine."

And without a second thought, he dropped Rho Aias before tracing Kanshou and Byakuya and charging towards the group of minions.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

She was not impressed.

To think that her big sister would develop a soft spot for someone who admitted to being an 'anti-sadist'.

Sure it was just the shield that she was actually interested in, but it was still rather pathetic.

Even now, looking at the boy standing with that giant pink shield in place made her feel revulsion… to think that such a soft hearted moron actually thought he could stand against her father…

Okay, what the hell just happened?

She watched as the self-proclaimed 'anti-sadist' proceeded to cut a swath through the Imps that had charged him.

There was no hesitation in going for a killing blow, no indication that he was put off by slaughtering his foes, no indication that he felt any remorse for what he was doing.

His expression looked more like he was doing a job than anything else.

Her eyes narrowed as she paid close attention to the attacks he made, each one was designed to kill as quickly and efficiently as possible, each opening in his stance that was aimed at was swiftly revealed to not be an opening at all and no matter how much the Imps tried to hurt him, they simply couldn't overcome his natural ability to simply remain one step ahead of them.

Honestly, his own minion was proving to be far more dangerous to him than those employed by her sister, what with how it seemed to consider him a valid target for her attacks.

But that didn't matter.

Because she found herself smiling as she watched the carnage happening below.

Now she found her sisters interest in this 'Emiya Shirou' far more reasonable.

After all, she could feel her heart beating faster as she watched him callously cut down his foes without mercy.

Licking her lips she understood why Lotsa would want him.

But that didn't matter.

Quality beat out over quantity after all.

If her sister had lots of plots to choose from, then she had the meaner ones.

Now the question was, how could she break this boy down and make him realize he was far crueller than he thought he was.

It would require some thought, but she was certain she'd have enough time to come up with something suitably cruel.

Or her name wasn't Meena Plotz, the second (and last) daughter of Lord Vile Plotz.

* * *

So... yeah...

The Crack just refused to let itself be restricted here -_-'

So...

Shadow Out.


	4. Chapter 4

Well... here we are so first things first...

Here is my gift to you for the Vernal Equinox.

Second thing... let's get on with the chapter.

* * *

"You really do need to get some more minions," Shirou could do little more than release a sigh of annoyance as he was once again healed up by Trey.

"I've told you before, I'm not getting anyone else involved," he stated bluntly.

"Yeah, yeah," the boy responded without hesitation, "but eventually you're gonna have to get more support if you want to defeat Plotz."

Shirou once again found himself twitching at the name.

It was still hard to accept that such a name actually existed.

Of course the worst part was that he understood exactly what the healer was talking about.

Even if he had grown more powerful, he could already tell that the enemies he was facing were also growing stronger.

It was ridiculous, seeing the foes he was facing becoming stronger even as he put all his effort into fighting them… but it was happening right before his eyes.

It even made him worry that figures like the Overlord's daughter were growing stronger too.

After all, if his enemies were getting stronger and he was growing stronger as well, then what was stopping his targets from getting stronger?

"Are we getting more meat shields?"

"No," Shirou immediately responded without any hesitation as Trinity's voice piped in.

"Aww…" the disappointment clear in her tone made it clear she was unhappy with that refusal.

"Anyway, that's you fixed up," the constantly bleeding mage told him and he found himself rising from the seat he had taken and stretching.

"Thanks," he responded without thinking, earning a grunt from the demonic boy.

"Yeah well, if you die then our main hope for stopping Vile Plotz will have been lost," the pointy eared boy stated with a frown.

Shirou found himself inwardly flinching at that.

The thought that everyone's hope was resting on his shoulders wasn't something he was comfortable with.

"But enough about that," the greyish blonde boy spoke up with a little more enthusiasm, "I've finally managed to get a hold of an Item Worlder."

"… a what?" he was certain his voice was bland as he asked that question.

"An Item Worlder," the healer stated with a sense of certainty in his tone, "every item has a world held within them, so an Item Worlder transfers you into them in order to delve deeper into its potential and eliminate imperfections contained within it."

Okay… that just sounded outright stupid.

Meaning it was probably true given what his experience in this world had managed to teach him.

"… so what's the point?" he found himself asking, earning a sigh off the other demonic boy.

"You go into an item," the healer started talking to him like he was a two year old, "you kill all the imperfections… then you go deeper into its potential and make it stronger, while making yourself stronger by killing things in there."

He could do little more than blink in response to that.

Once again, it didn't make sense but he found himself believing it regardless.

"So… do you want me to use it to train?" he asked, earning a nod in response, "so where is this 'Item Worlder'?"

"Over this way," and without any hesitation, the greyish-blond started to lead him over to a young girl with slitted orange eyes, blonde bangs, pointed ears and a mischievous grin.

Her clothes however, made him feel uncomfortable.

She was wearing a small white tube top with a brown jacket with orange lines down the sleeves, that didn't go lower than halfway down her torso, while the sleeves were large and baggy, leading into a set of gloves that looked almost like cartoonish animal paws.

Beyond that, there were the matching brown hotpants with a pair of blue pouches on the front, the thigh high orange and white striped stockings, animal paw like boots the large brown hat that looked like it was meant to imitate cat ears while a pair of goggles with orange slitted lenses rested on the rim.

The part that made him the most uncomfortable however, was the large, black pet collar wrapped around her neck.

"Here we are," the boy told him without delay, "the Item Worlder."

"Hey there!" the girl spoke with enthusiasm, "I'm the Item Worlder, here to help you with all your Item World needs!"

Shirou simply found himself staring in response.

Hearing such a clear advertisement was something he wasn't sure if he should be surprised by or not.

"So how does this work?" he decided to simply ignore the comment.

"You just hand over the item you want to improve and I'll do the rest!" she told him immediately and he found himself frowning once again.

"Is it really that simple?" he asked.

"Well… the strength of the demons inhabiting it depend on the power of the item," the girl stated with a thoughtful expression on her face, "you'd probably die pretty quickly if you go into something beyond your ability."

Well, at least he was being warned about that now instead of having to find out himself.

"Oh! And of course you can only leave after ten floors unless you use a Mr Gency Exit," he found himself blinking at that, "Oh! And of course, gotta give you five."

And with that, he found himself blinking as a series of objects were shoved in front of him.

They looked like small doors and made him wonder just what they were used for.

"Uh… how am I supposed to use these?" he asked, causing her to blink.

"You just put them on the floor and walk through them," she sounded surprised as she said that.

"… how am I supposed to fit through that?" he asked, causing her to stare at him blankly.

"It gets bigger once you place it on the ground," she told him and he found himself blinking in surprise at the simplicity of the explanation.

"Oh," that was all he could say in response.

"So, what are you going to improve first?" Trey's voice cut in and he found himself thinking about that.

"What wouldn't outright kill me?" he asked the girl as he started to pull out his equipment only for the girl to speak regardless.

"Pretty much everything outside of those magic-weapons stuck in your head," her response made him freeze.

"W-what?" he found himself wondering just how she could tell.

"I mean, take this thing," she said and he found his eyes widen in disbelief.

How the hell was she now holding Caladbolg II?

"You'd definitely be killed if you tried to upgrade this thing," she stated but he couldn't stop himself from staring in disbelief, "but most of the normal stuff you got in there would be doable for you… hey? You okay?"

"H-how did you get that?" he asked even as he tried to comprehend the mere idea of someone else taking a weapon out of his Reality Marble.

"I'm a thief… it's what I do," she stated without hesitation, "here you go."

And with that, he found the blade once again in his Marble.

It was actually rather nerve wracking.

The idea of meeting someone who could reach into his soul and take a weapon from it was not something he had ever considered possible.

"So… what's first?" the girl asked without any indication she even realized how much she had just unsettled him.

"Don't worry about it," the bleeding boy said without hesitation, "extra-dimensional storage doesn't help against these guys."

He found himself swallowing nervously but he tried to push the thoughts out of his head.

He tried to think about something worth working on.

"What about these?" he asked as he called forth Kanshou and Byakuya.

"They'd probably kill you," she told him without hesitation, "you _might_ be able to get through the first stage of them… but no guarantee you'd survive."

He found himself thinking about that.

Those two blades were probably the two he was the most comfortable wielding due to his synchronization with Archer and how often he used them in the Grail War.

And with his thoughts in his head, he found himself considering the situation.

Even if he was too weak to guarantee victory in the Item World, that was probably ignoring his single greatest attribute.

"I'll upgrade these," he said firmly.

"You sure?" she asked him and he found himself nodding without hesitation, "okay then."

And with that said, she proceeded to perform a quick ritual, resulting in a dimensional gate appearing above the blades.

"Just hop on in," she told him and he took a single deep breath before taking a step into the portal.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from feeling exhaustion as he exited the Item World.

Trinity wasn't looking too good herself, but he found himself less concerned about her than was normal for him.

Maybe it was because she kept forgetting she wasn't meant to target him with her attacks.

"Wow… I'm impressed," the Item Worlder said with a sly grin, "I didn't expect you to beat a full ten floors in there."

Shirou simply nodded in acknowledgement even as he felt the Twin Blades return to their place within his Reality Marble.

"And we even levelled up!" Trinity's voice called out enthusiastically and Shirou once again found himself resisting the urge to twitch.

"Trinity, this isn't a game," he stated bluntly, causing her to blink at him.

"Well duh," she sounded like she was talking to an idiot, "the author lacks the talent to make this into one."

He felt like banging his head against a wall.

Of course she'd make a stupid remark like that.

"Just… forget I said anything," he was too tired to try and get through to the girl right now.

"'Kay!" her chirpiness was still just as irritating as ever, "so… are we gonna go get healed now?"

"Yes," he acknowledged, earning a small cheer from the girl even as she started to skip over to the white clad demon boy.

"Still," he found his attention drawn to the girl who had sent him into his Noble Phantasms, "I'm sure you've been asked this before… but why is _that_ the only minion you have?"

"Because Trey hired her for me and I refuse to hire anyone else," he stated without hesitation.

The brown clad girl took on a thoughtful expression before a look of realisation crossed her face.

"Oh! You're trying to power-level your way up to Overlord Level aren't you?!" she sounded completely certain of that but he found himself blinking in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" he found himself frowning.

"Well, if you're refusing to use anyone else, then doesn't that mean you're hogging all the experience and just levelling up yourself?" her statement made him frown.

The fact that she made it sound like a game too only made him a bit more annoyed.

But at the same time… she wasn't exactly wrong about what the results were likely going to be.

"Well, I have to defeat the Overlord," he admitted, earning a nod off the girl.

"Yep, and once that's been done, you can rule us with an iron fist with no one strong enough to challenge you," her words made him blink in shock at her.

"That's not what I want!" he proclaimed with annoyance in his tone.

"Yeah… that's what they all say," she responded without any hint of concern, "but hey, as long as you let me do my thing, I won't complain."

He honestly didn't know how to respond to that.

Was that really how people saw his decision to not hire anyone else?

That he was just some power hungry monster who wanted to accumulate strength just so he could overthrow the Overlord and take over the world?

"Well, see ya!" the thief said with her smirk still on her face.

He wasn't sure what to think about that dismissal.

"I… I…" he started to try and argue only to be cut off by her.

"Aren't you going to go and get healed?" he released a sigh as he decided to simply try and ignore the idea that he was being seen as a power hungry tyrant.

"Y-yeah…" he said as he turned to make his way to Trey to get himself healed.

It didn't take him long to reach the blonde boy who immediately spoke to him.

"So… from what Trinity say's, you're pretty dangerous when you don't have those two swords of yours," Trey's words said a sense of interest in his tone.

Shirou found himself sighing once again.

"Well…" he wasn't sure what to say.

On one hand, he was indeed more dangerous when he wasn't using the Twin Blades, but it was hard to discard them given just how integral to him they had become.

"Well… I have a connection with those two swords," he admitted with a shrug.

"So how do they compare now?" the boy asked and Shirou found himself focusing on the two blades.

For all their previous power as Noble Phantasms, those ten short floors of fighting had resulted in the blades becoming sharper, more durable and even more dense with magical energy.

"I'd guess they're roughly about twice as strong as they were before," he said uncertainly… it was hard to compare them to how they were before after all.

"Sounds about right for the first ten levels," the cleric said without hesitation even as he quickly healed the injuries and exhaustion that had seeped into his body.

The complete lack of surprise in Trey's tone made it clear that such a concept was perfectly normal… and it made him wonder, just how much could he improve the weapons within the Unlimited Blade Works via that method?

And how much power would he accumulate if he _did_ try to empower everything to its fullest?

He was certain he had gotten noticeably stronger during his fights within Kanshou and Byakuya, but there were plenty of weapons far more powerful than they were.

Caladbolg was an obvious option, but there was also Durandal, Gae Bolg, Harpe, Gram and more than could be counted accurately.

And beyond that, his own prana output had grown massively.

If his previous maximum had been one hundred units, then he was probably closer to six hundred units now.

He wasn't sure if it would be enough to manifest Unlimited Blade Works, but he was definitely getting close.

That combined with the fact that his physical abilities had grown just as much only made him even more powerful.

And yet it simply wasn't enough.

This power, great enough that he would've been a legitimate threat during the Grail War, was still insignificant by the standards of the Overlord and his servants.

His fists clenched.

Even if he wasn't powerful enough yet, he would just train more until he was strong enough to fight them.

"Well, I guess I'll speak to you later Trey," he said even as he proceeded to leave the boy.

"Yeah, just speak to me whenever you're ready to go out again," and with that, he found himself heading towards someone else, with Trinity following right behind him.

Someone who was probably better for the question he had than Trey was.

It didn't take long to find them.

"Hello Adari-san," he found himself saying without hesitation.

"Oh, hello Emiya-kun, are you here to try my oranges?" it said and he once again found himself cringing slightly at that question.

"N-no… actually, I have a question for you," he responded with a little stutter at the beginning.

"Okay, ask away," the response was quick and easy.

"Does everyone think I'm not recruiting people because I'm a Tyrant that wants to be stronger than everyone?" it was a question that had been bugging him ever since he heard the possible interpretation of his actions.

"Pretty much," the easy response made him frown.

"And what about you?" he asked the plant more specifically.

"Me? I think you're a naïve idiot who doesn't take good advice when it's offered," that opinion was actually something he would prefer everyone had of him.

After all, he had no intention of becoming the Overlord.

"That's good to hear," he admitted with a sigh of relief.

"Not really," the green creature said without a moments hesitation, "after all, what happens _after_ you defeat Vile Plotz?"

Shirou found himself frowning at that claim.

"What do you mean?" he asked immediately.

"Well, every netherworld needs an overlord… it's kind of a rule," the response was clear and concise, "and if you defeat Plotz, then that position will naturally fall to you."

He found himself blinking in surprise at that but quickly shook his head.

"I don't want to be an Overlord," he stated without hesitation.

"And if you refuse, then that leaves only one other person viable to take the position," that particular statement was made with a blank stare.

"Oh! Oh! Who is it?!" Trinity spoke up from her position not far away.

"You," the Alraune said and Shirou found his mind screeching to a halt.

"Yay! I get to be Overlord!" the blue haired girl started to celebrate and Shirou finally found his mind booting back up.

"… w-what?" he finally managed to ask, his voice filled with a sense of dread he had rarely felt before.

"She'd be the only person strong enough to take over the role," Adari told him without hesitation, "so naturally, if you refuse, then it would fall to her."

That… that was a horrific thought.

The mere concept of someone like Trinity being in charge of the world made him shudder in despair.

"Besides… you said it before didn't you," the demonic plant said with a shrug, "you want to go home… and if you become the Overlord then you can direct the Netherworlds resources towards finding it."

His heart skipped a beat at that statement.

Home.

As much as he wanted to help the people of this world, he wanted to go home far more than he wanted to avoid getting into a position of power.

Because going home meant seeing Rin again.

His heart started to pound in his chest at that thought.

By the time he got back, would things even be the same? She probably thought he was dead, taken out alongside Gilgamesh.

Would she have found someone new?

He needed to find out.

And the sooner he defeated the Overlord, the sooner he would be capable of doing so.

Admittedly he wasn't sure about leaving Trinity in charge of anything… but then again, there wasn't really anything saying he _couldn't_ remain as this world's Overlord while still going to his home world.

Plus, he had a feeling that Rin would probably be more than willing to exploit all of this maliciously if she ever found out.

It might even be enough to get her to forgive him for letting himself disappear and leave her alone.

Though he doubted that it would be that easy.

"Well… perhaps that wouldn't be so bad," he decided to respond simply, "never really thought about it but I guess there are worse things that could happen."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd probably make a reasonable Overlord," the former greengrocer said without any sense of uncertainty.

Shirou could do little more than look in surprise at the demon.

He hadn't expected such an easy response.

"Thank you Adari-san," he decided to reply even as he made up his mind about what to do next, "now, me and Trinity are going to go and train a little more."

"We are?" the blue haired girl said with a couple of blinks.

"Well then, I hope you get stronger soon," and with that simple offer of support, Shirou proceeded to head towards the brown clad girl with the mischievous grin once again.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

The item world.

He had only been there once before but now he knew exactly what to expect.

A series of islands floating in an endless abyss, filled with demons who were the personifications of flaws and portals that lead further into the objects potential.

This time he wasn't using a Noble Phantasm, instead deciding to improve the power granted by the Imperial Seal he had been given back when he had first been turned into a demon.

The fact that he would also get the chance to try out the newly improved Kanshou and Byakuya didn't hurt either.

"So… who are we going to kill first?" the blue haired mage that entered with him asked and he found himself releasing a sigh as he tried to figure out who the strongest foes were via the history of the weapons they held.

Of course, that method failed to help him figure out the power of the magic users since their abilities weren't recorded in their staffs.

"Just try and pick off the weakest magic users before taking on the strongest," he commanded even as he pushed himself forward and towards some of the weaker foes.

He wanted to be able to focus on the main threats without having to worry about being ganged up on in the process.

According to the Item Worlder, he should be capable of dealing with the first ten floors in this object without too much trouble, especially after his conquering of the Twin Blades dungeon.

So he pushed forward, preparing himself for all the incoming attacks and moving the black and white swords in what a normal human would probably be unable to comprehend as anything more than a flurry of action.

But each swing was made with clear and precise intent, parrying strikes, flowing past guards and slicing through flesh without any real resistance.

It was almost horrific just how one-sided this particular fight was proving itself to be.

But he knew it was wrong to let his guard down.

This was just the first floor, where the imperfections were at their weakest, as the item's power increased, so would the power of the demons contained within.

And he had no way to heal if things went sour.

So he would get worn down as the enemies grew stronger, meaning he would have to manage his stamina properly in order to make it through.

It didn't change his thoughts on his swords though.

Slicing his way through the first floor turned out to be quite the simple process and he soon found himself standing with only Trinity and a series of corpses littering the area.

"So… are we moving further down now?" the ice mage asked and he found himself releasing a sigh as he focused on returning his breathing back to normal.

"Yeah, we are," he acknowledged even as he moved towards the portal that led to the next floor and entered it.

He still had nine floors to clear after all.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou found himself leaving the Item World significantly less sore and tired than he had been the last time.

Then again, he had pushed himself a bit more the last time.

This time he had simply used the Imperial Seal and retrieving it, let him know that it had resulted in it becoming about twice as powerful as it had been before.

But even then, the amount of power it granted him was nowhere near as tiring as it had been when he had first got it.

Then again, he was many times stronger now, so the proportional increase in his power was clearly inferior.

However, that didn't change the fact that he now felt like he could probably take on Berserker and be able to hold his own.

Not necessarily win, but at least hold his own against the greatest Hero of Greece.

And to think he had been completely outclassed by that guy mere days ago.

"Thanks for the trip," he said to the Item Worlder, who simply gave him another unnerving smile in response.

Without any further thoughts on the Item World, he found himself moving back towards Trey for some more healing.

"Hey," he said even as he walked up to the boy.

"Yo, need healing?" the boy asked him and he nodded in acknowledgement, causing the boy to start fixing up the minor injuries and fatigue he had been feeling, "so, you still working on your gear?"

"Yeah," he admitted without delay, "I need to improve more if I want to defeat the Overlord."

"That you do," the boy responded without hesitation even as he finished fixing him up.

"Hey Trey," he found himself wondering what the first person he knew in this world would have to say about the subject that had been brought to his attention not that long ago, "what do you think will happen after I defeat the Overlord?"

"Meh, I don't know," the boy sounded rather dismissive of the idea, "the matters of Overlords generally don't concern me."

"What about the current one?" he asked, causing the boy to shrug.

"He's attacking everyone… sooner or later it would be made my problem," it was a simple way of looking at it and Shirou found himself averting his eyes as he thought about just how callous it really was.

Then again, what else should he expect from a demon.

"Why do you ask?" the boy proceeded to question him and he found himself simply releasing yet another sigh.

"Because Adari brought it up," he admitted, "and from what I was told… it sounds like becoming the Overlord myself might be the best option."

"I see…" the boy didn't sound like he agreed with him at all, "you should probably just give up on that idea."

He found himself jerking in surprise at that statement.

"What do you mean?"

"You're too kind to be an Overlord," the blonde stated without hesitation, "you'd be slaughtered by the other Overlords as soon as they smelled blood in the water."

Shirou found himself processing that statement but found a steel forming within him.

If these other Overlords were as dangerous as he said they were, then he would simply have to grow strong enough to take them all out.

After all, he wasn't going to give up his quest to save as many people as he could just because of a little danger.

To do so would be antithetical to the existence named Emiya Shirou.

"Well… if they do, then I'll just have to make sure I'm strong enough to fight them," he said out loud, earning a frown from the healer.

"It's your funeral," and with that, the demonic boy proceeded to walk away and leave him alone with only Trinity.

"So… does that mean I _don't_ get to be the Overlord?"

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

She was most certainly not happy.

To find out that her minions had been slaughtered once she had left them to capture Emiya Shirou for her hadn't been something she had considered.

Especially since he was only about level seven and didn't have particularly good equipment either.

But then again, he _had_ somehow managed to hurt her back when he was only at level one… so perhaps she shouldn't have been that surprised.

Especially since he had that pretty pink thi-

Shield! Not thing!

Simply remembering what that mage had misinterpreted it to mean made her cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

She found herself wondering just why he kept that mage around when he was clearly annoyed with her.

Taking a deep breath she tried to focus on cooling down from her previous train of thought.

It was irrelevant anyway.

She wanted him.

She wanted that pretty shield and she was not going to accept no as a final answer.

But if he was strong enough to take out the guards she took with her before, then she'd just have to send someone stronger to capture him.

… it was just a shame there was only one demon she could think of that operated under her command that fit that criteria.

"You!" she called out to the Imp that was currently acting as one of the guards for her room.

"Y-yes mistress!" the little red cretin responded immediately.

"Bring me Alyssa," she commanded without hesitation.

"Yes mistress!" and with that, the winged creature left to complete their task.

Time seemed to stand still as she waited… but she wouldn't let it get to her… she was a Plotz… Plotz's were meant to be patient, to not rush things and to only reveal their full hand at the very last second when victory was guaranteed.

So she simply closed her eyes and waited.

"Your foot's tapping again mistress," the familiar voice called out and she opened her eyes even as she realized they were right.

"Shut up Alyssa," she responded without hesitation, "you made me wait."

She looked at the commander of the units that were her own personal play things, someone who was powerful enough to lead a unit but not powerful enough to be considered worthy of a higher rank.

It was a woman with the standard pointed ears that most demons had, while her amber eyes held a seriousness that her usual mirthful demeanour usually managed to cover up.

Her silver hair was tied back into a ponytail that fell to her shoulders, while a single extra large bang covered her right eye.

As for what she wore… well, she kept the hot pants and belts she he worn back when she was still just a typical Valkyrie, using two to cover her breasts while the other two simply hung onto her hips.

Outside of that, she wore onyx leg guards while a large black cloak with gold trim hung from her shoulders.

Then there was the spear she always carried with her, complete with a flag bearing the insignia of the Lotsa Corp.

"I have a mission for you," she proclaimed without hesitation, "I want you to find and capture a red haired boy named Emiya Shirou… he also has a pretty pink shield he can pull from nowhere."

"What level of maiming is acceptable?" that was the first question that left Alyssa's mouth upon hearing that mission.

She found herself about to answer before finding the words catching in her mouth.

Despite his sneak attacks on her when they first met, she found herself unable to really see him as someone worth really hurting.

It was pretty obvious that he had simply attacked in an attempt to protect the village she had been attacking… and the next time they had met, he had acquiesced to her wish to see his pink shield without any hesitation.

Which meant that he was only her enemy because of the war going on.

And if he was maimed then he might be less inclined to show her that shield on demand.

"None," she finally settled on, earning a nod of acceptance from the commander.

"Very well… it shall be done," and without another word, the white haired demon commander turned and made her way out of the room.

Now, it wouldn't be long until Emiya Shirou was her prisoner.

* * *

And that's all for today.

Shadow Out.


	5. Chapter 5

Yo... I'm back.

So... I think I'll answer a couple of things that came up in reviews:

 **Concerning the Item Worlder and Reinforcement:**

While the two are effectively the same on paper, that doesn't mean they're the same in practice... to put it simply, Shirou's reinforcement can't make an already absurdly powerful weapon about 80 times stronger (in Disgaea 3 at least, the Baal Sword starts at 22,500 atk and can be boosted to 1.8 million through the Item World) while the Item Worlder can... plus, the Item Worlder boost is permanent and requires no active concentration or sustenance from Shirou to maintain.

 **Concerning Thieves only being able to steal from equipped item slots:**

There is a simple answer to that and it comes in Disgaea 5 (haven't managed to play DD2 so I don't know if it was there before or not) in the form of Sub-Weapons.

UBW doesn't count as a warehouse, but as an unlimited number of subweapon slots as far as this story is concerned, which is why he can instantly switch whenever he needs to.

 **Specifically answering** **Masterx01 on** **Shirou not getting new attacks with weapon mastery, seeing things like status windows and his energy pool:**

The reason that stuff doesn't happen here, is because of Shirou being so stuck in his old ways that he isn't yet capable of realizing such things are there.

And concerning Shirou's energy pool, it doesn't really matter what his output is when given in prana units, the point of the number wasn't the number, but the comparative increase... the exact figures don't matter, just the difference.

 **And now that I've said that... let's just get on with the fic.**

* * *

Shirou couldn't stop himself from focusing on his current power.

He wasn't sure just how strong he was in comparison to the army of the Overlord, but he was certain it wasn't strong enough to take on the top tiers of the army.

There wasn't even a guarantee he was a match for the Overlords Daughter right now, especially given how easily she had shrugged off a shot from Caladbolg II before.

And he hadn't yet gotten a chance to upgrade the Fake Spiral Sword.

Though given how he had been told that trying to upgrade that particular weapon would be far more dangerous than what he had previously attempted, he found himself deciding to wait until he was certain he could succeed before trying to upgrade it through the Item World.

The fact that he was already growing so rapidly actually made that far less of an issue than he would've considered before.

After all, at his current rate of power growth, he would probably only be waiting a day or two before he was ready to upgrade the weapon.

And then it would probably end up being about twice as powerful as it had started.

While that may not seem that impressive, he had already witnessed the improvement a power increase of two times could make courtesy of Kanshou and Byakuya.

Because in the end, the enemies durability remained the same.

So a larger portion of the damage would get through from a more powerful attack, resulting in far greater damage than before.

Meaning that a single set of ten floors in the Item World could possibly make Caladbolg II powerful enough to do proper damage to the Overlords Daughter.

He still didn't expect it to be enough to defeat her in one shot, but it would certainly inflict a lot more damage than before.

"So… what are we going to do now?" the voice of the friendly fire maniac called out and he turn his attention towards her.

For all her natural power with magic, she was pretty weak.

More specifically, she was slow and fragile, unable to really get away from a foe if they got close, resulting in him having to focus on keeping the action away from her.

However, her magic was certainly a boon to the firepower his side could bring to bear.

Provided she didn't aim at him that is.

"I think we'll just do a little more training," he found himself stating before noting Trey walking towards him.

"Are you sure about that?" the boy asked and he found himself frowning.

"What's going on?" he found himself asking.

"You're getting called out by the commander of the Lotsa Force," the bloodied boy said and he found himself blinking at that.

"Yay! We've finally reached the level Boss!"

Shirou tried to ignore the cry from the mage working under him.

"The Lotsa Force?" he found himself asking with a raised eyebrow.

"… are you seriously asking about that?" Trey responded to his questioning gaze with a blank stare.

He really wished the other boy would just leave it.

He actively avoided using the names of the Overlord's family in an attempt at preserving his steadily deteriorating sanity.

Eventually he released a defeated sigh.

"So I'm going to have to fight the Overlords daughter without being ready," he found himself stating with a grimace.

"No," the boy told him without hesitation and he found himself focusing on him, "you're being called out by the commander, not their 'general'."

He could tell that the boy wasn't prepared to consider the gun toting girl a general, but at least it meant that he would be facing against someone weaker.

"And what are they doing if I don't go to them?" he decided to get more reasonable understanding of the situation before he jumped into it.

"Oh, you know… just threatening to slaughter innocent civilians," the boy responded with a shrug, "no biggie."

He found himself unsurprised by the healers lack of concern with the situation.

It was really saying something that he was already growing used to people treating death like it was nothing important.

But they were demons and as much as he preferred to just think of them as different types of people, they were still creatures of Evil.

"I guess I don't have a choice but to go then," he would've preferred to have more time to grow stronger, but once again, he found himself being pressed into a war despite not being ready.

At least he wasn't anywhere near as helpless as he had been at the start of the Grail War.

"You could always just let them die," Trey said and he found himself shaking his head immediately.

"No, I can't," his response was the only one possible for him, "now, can you send us there?"

"Sure, just try to not die," and with that, Trey led them towards the dimensional gate before activating the co-ordinates for Shirou to pass through.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

The first thing Shirou did upon exiting the dimensional gate was take stock of his surroundings.

Another simple village, this one complete with dome shaped mudhuts, while massive ruins made of steel and stone spread out in the distance.

"There he is!" a voice called out and he found himself directing his attention towards the brown furred Orc that had called out his position while standing on the domed roof of one of the mud huts.

He was about to pull out his bow and shoot the demon, before he was knocked off balance by what appeared to be a small meteor crashed down next to the Orc, sending it flying even as the house it had previously been standing on was obliterated from the force of the hit.

"W-what just happened?" he found himself asking in disbelief as he tried to rub the dust that had been thrown up, from his eyes.

"That would be me."

An unfamiliar voice called from the dust cloud and he found himself blinking wearily as he tried to take in the appearance of the new person.

It was clearly female if the breast straps were anything to go by, beyond that she had surprisingly cold amber eyes, a long silver ponytail with a single bang falling over her right eye and she was wearing very little underneath the cloak that was draped over her shoulders.

"Who are you?" he found himself asking, even if he already had an idea of who this person was.

The simple fact that she was standing in the middle of the crater showed that she was the object he had mistaken for a meteor.

"My apologises," she responded with a solid bow, "my name is Alyssa…. Is yours by any chance Emiya Shirou?"

"Yep! That's him!" Trinity responded before he could even consider lying to the stranger.

"Great, I wasn't sure if you were going to show up," the woman responded before pulling a large spear from out of nowhere, "now, surrender and I won't have to beat you to within an inch of your life!"

He couldn't stop himself from staring blankly at that statement.

Mainly because it actually made sense.

"And why should I trust you," he asked, causing the girl to nod in understanding.

"Because I am doing this purely for the mistress and she wants you to be taken alive and unmaimed," the spear holding girl responded without any hesitation.

And Shirou once again found himself considering the situation.

The Overlords Daughter really seemed to be focusing on him right now.

"And why are you even listening to her?" he decided to ask, wondering if he could sow some discontent between the demons.

"Because I want to."

… that was probably the worst answer she could've given to that question, at least, the worst when it came to taking advantage of it anyway.

"Why?"

"No comment," clearly the girl wasn't prepared to give her reasons to him but it had given him plenty of time to finish analysing her spear.

Meaning he now knew exactly what he should do to get her into a certain situation that would be very bad for her.

"Now, will you come peacefully or do I have to break your mage?" the woman asked without hesitation.

"No," there was nothing to consider.

On one hand, he could either give up and be removed from the rebellion while becoming the personal play thing for the Daughter.

On the other, he would rather die than be put into that sort of position.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay then…" the girl sounded put out by that declaration.

The next thing he knew, his instincts blared at him to guard… something that he immediately did.

The spear that clashed with his newly summoned twin blades and knocked him back several feet made it clear why.

"…what?" the silver haired woman sounded exceptionally confused as she looked at his guard before looking at his face for a second then returning to look at his guard once more, "how did you do that?"

"I guarded," he responded bluntly even as he considered the fact that he hadn't really received much in the way of damage from that last attack.

"But the battle hasn't started yet!" the woman shouted at him and he found himself blinking in surprise even as she proceeded to put some distance between them now that her opening move had failed.

"Wait… so you take advantage of that too?" he found himself honestly surprised by that revelation… he was beginning to think he was the only person in the entire Netherworld who considered attacking before the fight had started and the enemies guard was still down.

He could see the gears turning in the woman's head as she processed his statement before gawking at him.

"Wait! So you fight dirty too?" she asked in clear shock before glancing away with a pout even as she mumbled something he managed to catch, "I thought only me and Meena did that."

"Who's Meena?" he found himself asking despite his gut saying that it was a bad idea.

"The Overlords youngest Daughter," the woman told him without hesitation, "she's probably the craziest member of the entire family."

Shirou found himself unsure of what to say in response to that… so he simply asked a question that had been bugging him ever since he had found out about the Overlord.

"… why are all of their names puns?"

The woman simply looked at him as if he was crazy before answering.

"Because the author needed some way to name them, obviously."

Another insane answer.

"Yep, I mean, my name came from the random name generator," Trinity's voice cut in and he found himself wanting to bang his head against a wall.

"I think mine came from that too," the silver haired woman said with a frown.

"Enough!" Shirou honestly couldn't handle this much crazy so quickly, "let's just fight already… at least that makes sense to me."

"Uh… sure I guess," the woman responded even as she moved her body so that her left was facing him, while the spear in her right hand was being held perpendicular to where her head was facing and her left arm was being held loosely in front of her, ready to knock away any attacks that may come her way.

It was an insane style for anyone who wasn't superhuman… and even for someone who _was_ superhuman, it was a very inefficient style that completely failed to take advantage of the reach the spear naturally possessed.

But he wasn't going to underestimate the woman.

Because for all the amateur stance showed, the history of her spear showed something completely different.

This woman wasn't an amateur.

She was a blood knight.

Her starting attack was little more than a way of culling those that were too weak to give her a good fight, this stance was another test, a way of seeing if they were strong enough to stand against her full strength.

Her true stance however, was a proper spear stance that leveraged the full advantage that the spear offered, even going so far as to use insane moves that packed more power than he cared to be on the receiving end of.

With her current stance however, he knew she always opened with a wide swing at about chest level.

As soon as she moved, he proceeded to move the black blade held in his left hand up and angle it to catch the polearm.

Immediately he saw her eyes widen even as he managed to catch the weapon on the flat of his blade and push upwards, sending the spear soaring over his head due to her lack of leverage, leaving her open for him to step in and thrust with the white sword.

He found himself almost smiling as the blade managed to land true, sinking into the left hand side of her gut and prompting the woman to take a step back in an attempt to regain her footing.

Shirou however already knew that an injury like that probably wouldn't finish off his foe and took a step forward, swinging Kanshou down from where he had previously moved it when parrying the spear.

But it wasn't to be as his opponent managed to move the shaft of her spear in the way even as her other hand came up to hold the weapon in place, stopping his blade.

That was expected.

And he still had Byakuya free and moving under the guard and towards her vulnerable midriff once again.

Without warning, the woman proceeded to step to the side, reangling her spear and prompting the black blade to slide down even as he found himself losing some of his balance and missing the thrust with the white blade.

Then the spear was swung into his chest and he felt some of his ribs creak in response to the harsh blow.

Letting out a cough, he refocused on the woman even as he tried to recover.

She was no longer in her testing stance, now she was standing in a proper spearman's stance, a malicious grin plastering her face as she waited for him to recover.

"Not bad," her voice called out and he found himself grateful she hadn't struck at him while he was recovering, "I don't think I've seen anyone respond to my opening move so easily."

Well, he was technically cheating by already knowing that was her opening move.

But she didn't need to know that.

"That was awesome!" he found himself blinking alongside his opponent even as they turned to face the owner of said voice.

"Trinity… what are you doing?" he found himself asking even as he watched the mage stand by with a massive smile on her face.

"Uh… I was watching?" she seemed to ask, causing him to release a sigh of annoyance.

"If you tell her to attack me," he found his attention once again drawn towards his foe, "then I'm calling in my back up."

That statement made him grimace, he would rather not have to deal with multiple enemies while fighting this woman at the same time.

"Trinity," he called out, earning the attention of the mage, "attack everything that isn't me or this woman."

"Gotcha!" and with that, the blue haired girl started to skip around the town.

"Heh, that's pretty evil of you," the woman responded and Shirou found himself wondering just what she meant before his blood turned to ice.

"TRINITY! STOP!"

"Huh?" the girl stopped skipping and looked at him in confusion.

How had he managed to forget.

There were innocent civilians in this town, that was the whole reason he had come here in the first place.

"D-did you just forget about the hostages?" his opponent sounded honestly surprised but he found himself glancing away at that.

"Yeah…" he admitted, he was so much more focused on the threat directly in front of him than the people he hadn't seen since arriving.

"Oh… well I guess it's a good thing I made sure they weren't killed earlier," the stranger admitted with a smile.

That was certainly a complication.

"So you plan on trying to use them to force me to surrender?" he asked, remembering the last time he had been in a hostage situation and how his choice to accept the demands had ended up in him losing Saber to the mad witch and being left with no way to fight outside of some basic projections that didn't even have the same weight as his current ones did.

As much as he hated the idea of letting the hostages die, he had to think about the big picture and giving up would only cause more death in the long run.

However, his thoughts were immediately cut short by the laugh that the woman gave.

"Why would I do that?" she sounded honestly amused by his comment, "fighting you will be far more fun… and if you weren't worth fighting… well, you would already have been captured by now."

That.. made a surprising amount of sense given what he knew of the woman before him.

"Of course, I _can_ use them as bargaining chips to make sure our fight remains one on one," she told him with a smirk even as her body's twitching indicated she was reaching the end of her patience.

Not that surprising, a battle maniac would obviously not be fond of all the talking.

"Trinity, stay here and just watch," he changed his command, earning a confused nod off the mage.

As soon as the mage acknowledged his order, he decided to see if he could catch his foe unguarded by throwing Byakuya at her and rushing to close the gap.

He found himself unsurprised when she reacted immediately, leaning to dodge the blade and then moving to meet his charge with a thrust of her spear.

He moved to the side of the more professional attack while putting Kanshou between himself and the spear's shaft, while doing what he could to keep the blade as directly in front of the girl as he could manage without making it too obvious.

So when the polearm struck, he did what he could to keep himself in place while using both hands to keep the black blade in place.

*schlik*

The way his foes eyes widened and her face grimaced made it clear that his plan had worked, a thought that was made even clearer by the way the strength behind her push faltered enough for him to release his right hand and project another copy of Byakuya to strike at his foe.

He was actually surprised when she managed to dodge backwards and put some distance between them.

"O-O-O-O-OW!" the silver haired woman cried out after failing to keep it in.

He tried to move before she could do what she was clearly trying to do, but was too late.

The woman had been very quick about reaching behind her back and pulling the now blood soaked white blade from where it had been resting.

"SERIOUSLY?!" her response was clear even as she blocked his latest attack with her spear once again, "WHO THE HELL THREW A BLOODY SWORD INTO MY BACK?!"

It was obvious that she didn't realize the weapons were drawn together, which was definitely a good thing since it meant she wouldn't be able to predict it.

"No one!" he found himself hoping Trinity wasn't going to say what he thought she was going to say, "it just flew back on its own!"

Crap.

"… it flew back on its own?" his opponent asked before gawking at him, "YOU MEAN IT'S A BOOMERANG?!"

He couldn't stop himself from blinking at that conclusion.

It wasn't the truth, but it was easy enough to see why she would think that.

Well, it would still make striking her from behind with it harder than before.

However, there was a little issue that was beginning to bug him.

"And you're just ignoring any injuries I give you!" he decided to call her out on that, causing her to blink in confusion.

"Well… yeah, why wouldn't I?" her question was asked in such a way that he found himself being caught flatfooted by it.

"Because you've been injured!" he shouted in frustration.

"… but I'm a boss, my HP is too high for that to really hurt me," another completely insane statement came from his opponents mouth and he found his eye beginning to offer involuntary twitches.

"Yeah, Boss-man can be a bit of an idiot at times," the voice of Trinity called out and he found himself wanting to throttle the girl.

But right now, he had another matter to deal with.

Namely the fact that their weapons were still locked together.

"Trace On."

His words seemed to confuse his opponents before he projected a series of Noble Phantasms floating behind him.

"Oh crap."

"Trace Bullet, fire."

The Noble Phantasms immediately shot forward, their points all aimed at his opponent who immediately took another jump backwards to try and avoid the assault, while using her spear to deflect those that he fired later after aiming them at her new position.

But that was all just a distraction.

The true aim was to use her focus on these other attacks to cripple her.

With a single charge, he slipped under her new guard and swung his blades.

As soon as his blade met the bare skin on her thigh, her leg moved as she took another jump backwards, causing him to simply put a deep cut in the leg instead of removing it entirely.

It was definitely annoying.

He had hoped to limit his opponents mobility but instead, he had done what he was certain would be practically nothing in the grand scheme of things.

So he was left with the realisation that even if he was hitting his opponent more than they were hitting him, he simply wasn't doing enough serious damage to actually overcome their defences.

There was one more option left to him however.

"Trace On."

Without another word, he let Kanshou and Byakuya return to The Unlimited Blade Works as the weight of a weapon he preferred to avoid using appeared in his hand.

A long, blood red spear with twisting designs wrapping all the way around it.

It was a spear he was intimately familiar with, courtesy of having his heart pierced by its cursed tip.

A weapon that was incapable of missing its target, Gae Bolg.

Or at least, that's what it was supposed to do.

In the end, Saber had managed to avoid getting her heart destroyed by the Noble Phantasm even if it had struck her, and he knew from the history of the Spear that it had failed to overcome the defensive properties of Rho Aias when it had been used against Archer.

It had even been incapable of piercing the skin of Berserker, proving that the weapon wasn't as reliable at killing powerful foes as it should have been.

However, there was another issue he needed to consider.

That smirk his opponent was giving him.

"So… you want to try and fight me with my own weapon of choice huh?" she seemed to completely misunderstand his reason for choosing the weapon he had pulled out.

That was both good and bad.

On one hand, she didn't know that he was planning on screwing over the laws of physics to carve out her heart, while on the other hand, she was probably going to be rather forward in her assault against him.

Then again, she was being pretty forward about it anyway.

So there wasn't much difference all things considered.

"No," he decided to admit, "I plan on killing you with it."

"That is so metal."

He twitched as he heard Trinity's response, undercutting any intensity he may have wanted to impart.

"Good," his opponent seemed to ignore his overly enthusiastic mage, "then I'll just have to kill you before you kill me!"

And without another word, his foe charged towards him once again.

This time however, he wasn't using Archers style.

Easily knocking the spear away, he struck out with Gae Bolg, his skill an imperfect imitation of the Hound of Ulster's own style, opening up a window with which he could say the two magic words.

"Gae Bolg!"

He had witnessed Gae Bolg in action before, the way it warped reality itself to ensure it hit its foe was impossible to truly describe.

It was an action beyond human comprehension.

Even here, it achieved the same result and he felt a sense of relief well up inside him as the point struck where it was meant to…

He felt his heart skip a beat as he realized that it _hadn't_ succeeded in piercing her heart.

Moving backwards, he ripped the tip clear even as his opponents spear came down where he had once been with enough force to shatter the ground.

"H-how?" he couldn't understand.

Why had it failed to strike true?

Was it because the spear in Unlimited Blade Works was a fake?

"Dammit…" he noted the grimace on the face of his foe as she held her chest where the blow had struck, "what the hell was that?"

"H-how? It should've struck your heart," he found himself saying out loud.

That seemed to cause the woman to blink in response.

"Wait… it should've struck my heart?" she sounded surprised by that and he nodded in acknowledgement, "… do I have plot armour?"

No… not more crazy talk.

"Well you are a named character," Trinity spoke up and he found himself growing more annoyed, "so… probably?"

"In that case," the spear-woman said even as she held the weapon at ready once again, "let's finish this!"

Her outright viscous grin returned and he found himself once again on the defensive as the woman attacked him once again.

But, her attacks were clearly weaker, she was clearly exhausted and he found himself managing to push her back more easily, slowly managing to overpower her as her chest injury continued to bleed out.

It was honestly rather depressing.

To see her continuing to fight despite being in such a state, and simply because she was enjoying herself too much to stop, was something he found hard to accept.

Perhaps if she was fighting for something greater, for a purpose that she couldn't reject, then she might have been admirable.

But she was just fighting because she wanted to fight.

And that wasn't something he could accept.

Knocking her away with his full strength, he prepared himself to finish her off with another thrust.

"Gae – aurgh!" he failed to finish as a giant rock smacked against the side of his head.

He found himself somewhat surprised by how little the attack hurt, but it was enough to stop him from completing what he was going to say even as a series of Orcs and Imps appeared to flood the area.

Mixed in among them were a group of demons of all ages and genders, with knives held to their throats.

"Give it up red!" one of the Orcs cried out and he found himself grimacing as he considered the situation, "we've got you outnumbered and we got hostages!"

He wasn't sure what to do in this situation, he knew that the smart thing to do would be too ignore the hostages but his instincts were screaming at him to save them.

"Now, give up and come quietly and we'll let them live," the same orc continued and he found himself about to speak up when the orc was smacked over the head with the shaft of a familiar spear.

"DON'T INTERFERE WITH MY FIGHT!" the silver haired woman shouted at the newcomer.

"B-but Boss!" another one of the orcs cried out uncertainly, "we're supposed to capture him alive right?"

"Yeah, but I want to finish my fight with him so get out of the way!" she responded without a trace of hesitation.

"B-but you need medical attention!" one of the imps said with a sense of despair and Shirou found himself silently wondering.

Did these guys actually _like_ their boss?

Given the whole 'puppy kickingly evil' attitude all his previous foes had displayed, he thought they would simply view the death of their superior as a sign that they could aim for a promotion.

But this was very different.

In the end though, it didn't really change the fact that he had to beat this woman and her soldiers were taking hostages that he wanted to avoid getting hurt.

"Go," he finally decided to say, hoping that they'd listen, "go and get healed, then come back in a day or two and we'll finish our fight… just don't use hostages next time."

The look of surprise on the faces of the Orcs and Imps was clear to him.

"Oh? Do you want to run?" the woman asked and he found himself releasing a sigh.

"No, I'd prefer to just kill you right now," he decided to be honest and the grin he got in response said it was appreciated, "but I have this thing about saving people… so I can't really do that without putting them at risk."

"Plus," he decided to give another motivator for the woman, "if you wait a day or two, then I'll definitely be stronger… so much so that I probably won't have to use that spear next time."

"Deal."

He was almost shocked by the sheer speed of her response.

"B-but boss!" another one of the Imps cried out before being hit by the shaft of the spear.

"Shut up, we're leaving for now and that's final!" the woman proclaimed without pause even as she opened up a dimensional gate, "see ya tomorrow the Emiya Shirou."

"Yeah… see you tomorrow… uh… what's your name again?" he found himself asking with a hint of a frown upon realizing he had forgotten her name in the heat of battle.

"Alyssa," she told him without hesitation, "and you'd better not chicken out!"

"Yeah yeah, just go and get yourself fixed up before you die," he responded, causing her to nod in acknowledgement even as she took a step through the gate, with a few of her minions following after her.

The rest seemed to look at each other before turning their attention to him and then the gate, before finally releasing sighs of their own as they made their way off the battlefield before the gate closed.

"So… does that mean you've got a date tomorrow?"

And with that question from Trinity, Shirou found himself smacking his head against a wall once again.

* * *

And that is all for today.

I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and so without any further ado...

Shadow out.


	6. Chapter 6

Well... this was supposed to come out last week but I failed to get it completed by then.

But anyway... got something to say before I start.

A couple of people have pointed out that Thieves in Disgaea are capable of stealing conceptual things from others, including things like strength and health... I will admit, I've never really used Thieves in Disgaea, so I forgot about those skills being a thing.

But anyway... let's just get on with the chapter.

* * *

Shirou couldn't stop himself from releasing a sigh of annoyance as he considered the entire situation.

Trinity wasn't dropping the idea that he was going on a date with that spear user, but he was more concerned about getting stronger so he could overcome her in their next battle.

"So… let me get this straight," Adari spoke with a careful tone, "you got into a fight with a commander that works under the Overlords daughter… and ended up arranging a battle for later so that the hostages wouldn't be harmed?"

"Pretty much," he acknowledged without delay.

"And this opponent was stronger than you and capable of taking serious injuries without much issue?"

"Yes," he responded again.

"Well then… I guess that'll be the end of this mini-arc when you beat her," Adari's words made his eye twitch.

Was he the only person there that didn't treat this entire situation like it was some sort of narrative?

Releasing a sigh, he found himself simply accepting that they wouldn't listen to any reason he gave and decided he had more important things to do than waste his breath on that.

"Well, I'm going to get some training in," he decided to derail whatever insanity was about to come with that simple sentence.

"Good luck Emiya-kun," the plant like demon responded with a knowing smirk on its face.

It didn't really matter, in the end, the whole point was to get out of the conversation before the headache was made too big.

Making his way back towards the Item Worlder, he wondered just how much stronger Allyssa would be by the time of their rematch given that he doubted she would just waste her time doing nothing while he trained.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

"*Achoo!*" Lotsa couldn't stop herself from blinking as Allyssa sneezed from her place lounging on a sofa.

"I suppose Emiya Shirou is talking about you," she pointed out with a hint of jealousy at the fact that Allyssa of all people had gotten this scene before her.

"Well… I don't think he likes your name," the silver haired warrior responded with a shrug.

"WHAT?!" that was an outrage!

"Yeah, he looked pretty annoyed by your name being a pun."

"…"

Lotsa couldn't stop herself from thinking that the boy was simply too serious.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

"What do I have that's challenging to improve?" Shirou asked as soon as he reached the thief.

As much as he hated the idea of someone stealing from Unlimited Blade Works, he had at least gotten used to her ability to remove them without his say so.

"Is that a 'moderate challenge' or a 'certain death' challenge?" the response made it clear he would have to be more specific.

"One that I can…" he found himself stalling upon realizing what he had just been about to say, "get a lot stronger from."

The mere fact that the phrase 'level up' had nearly come from his mouth was horrifying as far as he was concerned.

These demons really were rubbing off on him.

He just hoped that he wouldn't be completely insane by the time he got back to Rin.

"Well… if you want to complete it then I guess there is this one," the Item Worlder told him even as she brought out a _very_ familiar spear.

"… are you serious?" he asked bluntly.

"Hey! Isn't that the spear you used to not kill that Alyssa woman?" Trinity's voice called out and he found himself twitching slightly at the fact she pointed out the failure of the weapon.

"It was meant to kill her," he pointed out.

"But it didn't," her response was quick and he found himself unable to really counter that point.

"That spear is meant to always hit the heart," he declared, "I don't know how she managed to survive it."

"Plot armour," the Item Worlder responded without hesitation and he found himself frown at her, "all bosses are immune to insta-kill effects."

He couldn't stop himself from feeling his eye twitch from that proclamation.

"No one should be immune to instant death abilities," he pointed out with his irritation entering his tone.

"But if they weren't, then that would ruin their part in the story," the thief stated with a confident nod.

"T-that's… you're…" he honestly didn't know how to respond to such an obviously ridiculous claim, "you know what, forget it… just send me into Gae Bolg."

"Okay, have fun in your gay bulge," the cat eyed girl said with a mischievous grin before he found himself being thrown into the portal to the item world one more time even as he found his irritation at the Item Worlder growing even more at her clearly intentional mispronunciation of the spear's name.

But for now… he would just have to push those thoughts out of his head.

For he had what would be an arduous battle ahead of him.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from gasping for air as he finally finished the ten floors in Gae Bolg.

That had certainly been an arduous challenge but he couldn't stop himself from feeling like it had been worth it.

"Congratulations on completing the first ten floors," the thief said with her grin still intact.

"Shut… up…" he ground out as he considered just how exhausted he was this time around, "… need… Trey."

"You need a tray?" it was obvious the demonic girl knew exactly what he was talking about and he simply glared in response, "… fine, fine… hey! Prinny, go take these guys over to Trey."

"Yes dood!" with that cry from outside his field of view, Shirou quickly found himself releasing a groan as he was picked up and taken over to the healer in the area.

"You look like crap Shirou," the boy in white responded without delay.

"Just… please heal us Trey," he decided that snapping at the boy wasn't the best idea, earning a shrug from the priest before the soothing glow of healing magic took its hold on him, releasing him of the ache that permeated his body, "thank you Trey."

Without any further delay, he proceeded to rise back to his feet even as he considered his strength increase.

He knew he'd grown stronger, but he was sure he was still too weak to take on Alyssa just now… which naturally meant another round in the Item World.

"I guess I've still got more work to do before I'm ready to fight Alyssa again," he proceeded to say, earning a shrug off the boy.

"Well… it's not like you have to fight her one on one right?" the healer asked and he found himself stalling a little at that.

While it was true that he _could_ break the deal and have Trinity fight too… he found himself hesitating.

Why shouldn't he just do what he could to defeat his enemy?

But then again… he found it hard to really consider her a proper enemy.

Sure they were on opposite sides, but she seemed to share a few similarities with Lancer, and that guy had shown that he was more than willing to help them during the Grail War.

Admittedly, Lancer had stabbed him in the heart the first time they had met, before coming after him again when Rin had healed that stab wound.

But by the end of the War, Lancer had shown that he wasn't really their enemy.

So dealing with someone like the Irish Spearman, made him wonder just how loyal to the Overlord she actually was.

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, he simply answered Trey's question.

"No… but I don't think it would hurt too much to show a little honour here," his words sounded strange coming from his mouth, he tended to care about winning more than being fair after all.

But at the same time, it didn't feel wrong to do that in this specific situation.

"Honour gets people killed," the other boy responded bluntly and he simply shrugged in response.

"Well… she admitted she's meant to take me captive alive and unmaimed," he pointed out, causing the boy to stall.

"What?" it was obvious that Trey hadn't expected that response.

"She told us that she was ordered to capture me alive and unmaimed," he repeated… obviously there was some reason behind that but he wasn't sure what it was.

"That's… unusual," the boy looked at him with a frown.

"Well… apparently the Overlords daughter wants me alive," he supplied with a shrug, "I think she wants my shield or something."

Admittedly, that was the only reason he could think of, but given how the Overlords Daughter had reacted to Rho Aias… he didn't think it was completely unreasonable for that to be the cause for the rule about no killing or maiming.

"… so the Overlord's Daughter wants to capture you… not kill?" the boy still sounded uncertain, "that doesn't sound normal."

"Since when has anyone here been normal?" he found himself asking with a raised eyebrow at the implication that there was such a thing as normal in this ridiculous world.

"There's always been such a thing as normal… you're just not it," Trey responded without hesitation.

Shirou really wanted to disagree.

He _really_ wanted to.

But he really couldn't when he had a Reality Marble lodged inside his skull.

"… I'm still more normal than anyone here," he settled on even as he glanced away from the smaller boy.

"No, you're definitely not generic enough to be considered more normal than anyone here," the other boy responded without delay, "and if you're judging us based on your own world, remember, our world, our rules."

That much was true.

He still refused to acknowledge that what they called normal was anything other than complete batshit insanity.

To accept it as anything else would be to let it infect him after all… and he didn't want to give Rin an aneurysm when he returned to his home world.

"I reject your reality and substitute it with my own," he decided to proclaim, it wasn't entirely _false_ anyway… he was capable of manifesting Unlimited Blade Works back when he fought Gilgamesh and he was feeling more confident in his ability to do so unaided now.

He still wasn't entirely sure if he could maintain it for long… but it could potentially make a useful trump card.

"That sounds more like it Emiya-san," he was brought out of his thoughts by the voice of Trey indicating his comment hadn't been as successful as he had thought, "substituting reality with what you want is the basis of being a demon."

… Shirou really didn't know how to handle that statement.

The mere idea that his only real skill could be described as being the same as the power of a demon was not something he was particularly happy to consider.

"I'm going to train now," he decided to just cut his losses and do what he needed to before he dug his hole any deeper.

"Good luck," the small encouragement from the boy washed over him as he made his way back to the Item Worlder.

"Next," he spoke upon seeing the girl once again.

"Uh… do you mean the next weapon that could give you a good challenge?" the thief asked and he nodded in acknowledgement.

"I need to get stronger, so of course that's what I'm after," he explained without hesitation.

"Okay then," and with that the girl pulled out a weapon and he found himself once again surprised by the one pulled out, "I think you're finally ready to take on this one."

Looking at the drill like sword, he recognized it as Caladbolg II, or as it was also known, the Fate Spiral Sword.

It was probably one of his most powerful weapons, especially when broken and fired from the ludicrous recurve bow that his future self had used.

He was certain that simply drawing that thing would be near impossible for an unaugmented human.

Thankfully, he had magecraft to aid in handling that draw weight before… and now he was far beyond a human in sheer strength even without reinforcing his body.

"That's good to know," he responded to the thief who quickly proceeded to throw him back into the Item World once again.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Alyssa couldn't stop herself from feeling a swell of excitement as she waited for the day to pass.

To think that she had found someone who was capable of fighting on her terms without being so overpowered she stood no chance.

A minor loss based on a trick that was apparently an insta-kill move from what Emiya had said.

However, none of that really mattered.

What mattered was that she would have a rematch with someone who had been capable of keeping up with her despite being weaker.

There was the question of how much stronger he would get for their rematch, but this time she'd be ready for his ability to fight her seriously.

So no testing the waters, no wasting time letting him get a few easy shots in… next time, she'd just go straight in for the kill.

… well, not _kill_ per se, Lotsa would be pretty angry if she did that.

But she'd definitely take the fight seriously from the start.

For now, she would just consider what she knew of the boy.

He was a lower level than she had been, though not by a substantial margin, he also seemed to be very good at defending from her attacks… so it was possible he had 'Hero Style Defence' as an Evility.

Then there was the speed with which he changed to that spear, he'd probably equipped it as a Sub-Weapon, meaning he had prepared it before the fight.

So the question of what other weapon he would choose instead of the insta-kill one for their next fight.

Beyond that, he had mentioned that he'd get stronger… meaning he'd probably be doing a bit of levelling before their rematch.

It just made her smirk.

Emiya Shirou was someone who she could push herself against.

All her subordinates were too weak to give her a good workout, however her peers and bosses were usually strong enough to wipe her out without much effort.

The only exception had been Lotsa and even then, the Overlord's Oldest Daughter wasn't really any fun to fight due to avoiding getting up close and personal.

But it was still better than being wiped out before she could really get going.

In the end though, Emiya Shirou had managed to give her a good workout without relying on ranged weaponry to cheese her.

Beyond that, there was also the fact that he was ready for her attack outside of battle.

In the end, he had proven his worth as a foe.

And for that reason, she couldn't stop her excitement at their next battle from swelling in response.

Just one day.

That was all she had to wait for their rematch.

"…"

"…"

Now she understood why Lotsa had problems waiting.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

The Item World had once again pushed him to his limits.

Pushing through to the tenth floor of Caladbolg had been arduous but he was sure it had helped his strength grow at least a little.

Admittedly, he would need more if he wanted to defeat Alyssa in mortal combat, but it was better than not improving at all.

"Congratulations Emiya-san," the thief that ran the item world spoke with a grin, "you not only managed to improve your drill, but you even managed to subdue your first innocent!"

He froze at that claim by the Item Worlder.

"…What?" he asked with what little strength he had.

"You finally subdued an innocent!" the orange clad girl responded with her grin still intact.

"…"

The silence that came after that was deafening.

"What do you mean I subdued an innocent?" he asked with a frown marring his face as he considered the girls words, before deciding to get some clarification, "and what do you mean by 'innocent' anyway?"

"An Innocent is a special type of being that can be found in the Item World," she spoke and he found himself listening, "all you gotta do is kill them and they can be brought into line and offer a special bonus based on what type of Innocent they are."

That didn't really make much sense to him, then again, when did anything in this world make sense to him?

"And what does this 'innocent' I subdued do?" he found himself wondering just what sort of trouble it might cause for him.

"It's a Statistician," the Item Worlder told him before her grin widened, "it helps you grow stronger faster."

He could do little more than blink at that.

"…What?" was the only word that could escape his mouth at that claim.

"It helps you grow stronger faster," she repeated and he found himself trying to wrap his head around that idea.

"How?"

"Because it's a Statistician," the response told him nothing.

"But how does a Statistician help make me get stronger?" he asked with his confusion clear on his face.

"Because it's a Statistician," he was really beginning to get annoyed with that completely useless answer.

"I mean, how does it work?" he tried to get a straight answer out of the girl who simply shrugged.

"You just make sure you have the subdued Statistician in whatever item you're using and it helps you grow stronger," okay… so that was how to use one.

"But that doesn't explain how it makes it easier for me to get stronger," he pointed out.

"It increases your experience from battle," he found his eye twitching.

Experience from battle didn't change just because you had something inside your weapon.

"That doesn't make sense," he declared firmly.

"Does anything here make sense to you?" the thief responded and he froze.

That… was entirely too true.

Releasing a sigh, he found himself deciding it would probably be easier to just drop the issue of the mechanics behind this so called 'innocent' and just focus on what it was supposed to do.

"You said something about making sure it's in the item you're going to use," he decided to clarify.

"Yeah, I can move them around if you want… but you can only use them when they've been subdued," the Item Worlder told him with ease.

"Can you move it into this?" he decided to ask as he brought out the Imperial Seal he was still wearing as a necklace.

"Easily," the response was made without any hesitation and he found himself simply closing his eyes and making a decision.

"Then do so," his command was made a bit more firmly than he would've expected from himself, but the demonic girl didn't seem to care about that as she took both the sword and the necklace before doing something that he couldn't quite understand before returning them both.

"Done," the girl told him and he nodded in acceptance.

"So… what sort of increase in my growth are we talking about here?" he decided to confirm.

"Four percent," the response was made without delay and he found himself blinking at that.

"… is that it?" he could honestly say, he hadn't expected such a small increase given what she had told him before.

"The Statistician is only level four," her response made him frown, "they grant a one percent improvement per level, up to a level of three hundred."

He found his eye widening at that.

That meant that a fully matured Statistician would let him grow four times faster… and given his current rate of growth… that would definitely be worth working towards.

"How do I improve it?" he decided to ask, after all, if what he was being told was true, then that would definitely be something he should invest in.

"There are only really two ways," the slitted eyed girl told him with a shrug, "you can either do it the hard way, which is to hunt down more statisticians, subdue them and fuse them… or you can send it to the Innocent Farm… but we don't have one of them, so you're stuck with the harder way."

He nodded his head in response to that.

"I guess I'll just have to do it the harder way then," he acknowledged with a defeated nod, "even if I need to get stronger soon, being able to grow four times faster would definitely make up for it."

He immediately noted the way the girl blinked at that.

"Uh… you do realize you can stack them… right?" the girl asked him and he found himself frowning once again.

"What do you mean?" he decided he need clarification on that.

"Well… items can store a minimum of four different innocents, a maximum of eight… and then you can use four items at the same time," the girl pointed out, "so you could actually get to a point where you're growing ninety-seven times faster than normal."

"…"

Shirou couldn't stop himself from staring in shock at that proclamation.

The mere idea of growing four times faster was unreal enough… but to learn that he could potentially grow ninety-seven times faster was just outright insane.

"Okay… how long would it take to reach that the hard way," he asked, earning a deadpan stare off the girl.

"A _**long**_ time," she responded without hesitation.

The simple way she stressed that made it clear it wouldn't be feasible to try and do that in order to defeat the Overlord.

"And how long would it take to do it with an Innocent Farm?" he asked, wondering if it would be worth trying to get one.

"Hmm…" the girl started to mused out loud, "I'm not sure… but it would definitely be a _**lot**_ quicker."

"Why's that?" he decided to try and get a better idea of how the innocent farm was so much quicker.

"Well… if you're doing it the long way, then you're going to have to keep subduing them… and they're never above level four," she spoke, " so you're looking at a minimum of hunting down seventy-five Statisticians just to get one to level three-hundred."

He nodded at that, such a thing definitely sounded like it would take a long time.

"Beyond that, Statisticians are pretty rare to begin with, and you'd probably have to go through the first twenty-floors of an item just to find one," it was sounding even harder now, "but with an Innocent farm… you just need two and they'll start to reproduce and then you can start to merge them for quick increases… and then they'll produce higher level children, who that makes the levelling up even easier."

He could definitely tell why she said it was the easier option.

"How long do they take to reproduce?" he asked with a thoughtful frown.

"Not long," her response made him raise an eyebrow, "from what I've heard, there's no pregnancy involved so there isn't much waiting."

The idea that there was no pregnancy involved was definitely strange… but he found himself simply deciding that the chances of getting a straight answer were slim at best.

"… I see… then I've got to do something," he told her as he pushed himself up off the ground and winced at the pain that spiked through his body, "come on Trinity… we need to get healed."

"Yessir!" the chirpy response made him wonder if she was even sore… or if she was just a masochist.

He wouldn't put it past her.

Moving was sore but he had fought in this state so he wasn't going to let it beat him.

Eventually he reached Trey and noted the way the boy seemed to smirk at him.

"Need more healing?" the question was clearly rhetorical but he nodded anyway.

"Yeah…" without waiting any more, he let the boy heal him up, the magic both fixing his soreness and reinvigorating him, before the boy turned to heal the Ice Mage.

"So… are you going to go back for more training?" the white haired boy asked and he found himself releasing a sigh.

"I've got something I need to do before then," he admitted without delay.

"Oh?" that seemed to gain the interest of the healer, "and what is that?"

"… figure out how to get an 'Innocent Farm'," it was a simple point but he noted the way the boy released a sigh at that.

"It's too early," that was certainly surprising, "the Innocent Farm is too powerful for you to gain access to this early in the story."

He gave the healer a blank stare at that declaration.

"I don't care," he responded bluntly, "I want access to an innocent farm as soon as possible."

"And like I said, it's too early, so you'll just have to wait," for the first time ever, he found himself growing genuinely angry at the boy.

The idea of keeping it away during a time of peace was understandable, but this was war… he shouldn't have to worry about it being 'too powerful' when it comes to growing strong enough to face the Overlord.

"That shouldn't matter in a time like this," he decided to point out, earning a simple shrug off the boy.

"Well, like I said, I'm not getting you an Innocent Farmer," the boy responded resolutely and he found his irritation once again swelling up at just how unhelpful Trey was being.

The worst part was that the boy was being so quick in his refusals that it was obvious he wouldn't be able to convince him to change his mind.

He was sure it would've been different if Rin had been there… she was much better at negotiating than he was.

"… fine," he finally relented, earning a smirk off the other boy.

"Yeah, you'll just have to get stronger the old fashioned way," the bloodied boy responded without hesitation.

Shaking his head in frustration, he proceeded to turn away and head back to the Item Worlder for some more training.

For all he now wanted to build up these so called 'Innocents', he still had to get stronger regardless.

Eventually he arrived at the Item Worlder once more.

"I take it you were told you couldn't have an Innocent Farm yet?" the girl spoke with a mischievous smile once again adorning her face.

"How did you know?" he found himself wondering just how she knew the answer had been such a resounding no.

"Innocent Farms are a late game facility," she spoke without delay, "definitely something you shouldn't get before you've got the Assembly."

And once again, Shirou found himself narrowing his eyes in response to that.

"And what exactly is the 'Assembly'?" he decided to ask, earning a shrug.

"The place where you pass bills," she answered without delay.

"And bill's are…?" he had no idea why passing something like that would even matter.

"Think of them as being like… new laws or something," the girl responded and he found himself blinking at that, "so you need the cooperation of the Senators to get them passed."

"Uh… how am I supposed to use something like that?" he asked, earning a confused frown from the thief, "I mean, we're technically criminals aren't we, so why would it matter what we do when the Overlord is ruling?"

"Well… they're not _**really**_ laws, they're just passed like them," she told him with a frown, "plus… you have to get the Senators to agree… which usually means either _**lots**_ of bribes or being strong enough to beat them all down anyway."

He found himself more surprised that he found that last part completely unsurprising more than anything else.

It just screamed to him that he was becoming too used to this world and the insanity that came with it.

"Any idea when Trey was planning on telling me about that?" he found himself asking with a thoughtful frown.

"Not a clue," the response was expected but he was now beginning to wonder just why the boy was holding back on all this stuff.

Didn't Trey want him to win the war?

Shaking his head clear, he found himself once again turning his attention towards the Item Worlder.

"In that case," he spoke without delay, "can you find me any other weapons with Statisticians inside them?"

"That, I most certainly can," and with that, the orange clad thief proceeded to pull out a series of weapons from his Reality Marble and lay them out before him.

Now it was time to try and improve the statistician's the hard way.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

The sound of tapping reverberated through the hallway as Lotsa watched the silver haired warrior that led her forces sitting in wait.

After what was apparently a rather cheap victory, Emiya Shirou had agreed to fight Alyssa once again, this time fairly.

She honestly doubted he would do that.

Not after he shot her in the face with a sword the first time they met.

And beyond that, Alyssa had already lost once and she had no intention of sitting back and letting her lose again.

She was her only competent minion after all.

Which meant she couldn't risk her only useful peon die at the hands of the person she was being sent to capture.

So for the first time since their initial encounter, Lotsa found herself preparing to fight the boy once again.

Because even if she wanted to get him for that pretty pink shield… she wasn't prepared to lose everything in the process.

Doing so would only make Meena even more insufferable than usual.

Naturally Alyssa wouldn't like that she would be going, that much wasn't exactly hard to predict, but she was the boss.

And she would get what she wanted whether her minion liked how she did it or not.

* * *

And that's all for today.

Shadow out.


	7. Chapter 7

Hello again.

This chapter is a bit shorter than normal but... well... it just felt right to end it where I did.

Including the last segment.

So anyway... let's get on with the fic.

* * *

Shirou found himself silently considering the situation as he finished up another set of floors within the Item World.

While he had agreed to another fight with Alyssa, but despite having agreed to it, they had only given it a date, not a time or place.

As such, he found himself wondering just how she'd reveal her presence to him.

"Any signs?" he asked Trey as he found himself still annoyed at the blonde-haired boy for refusing to set up an Innocent Farm for him.

The fact that Trey was even being reluctant to even set up an 'Assembly' was annoying to a similar degree.

"Not yet," the boy responded with an annoyed sigh, "it's still technically the same day you issued the challenge."

Shirou found his eyebrow twitching at that declaration.

He doubted such a thing would matter to someone who was as enthusiastic about fighting as Alyssa appeared to be.

"Just be sure to let me know when she shows up," he told the boy with a sigh of frustration.

"Of course," the boy with the white gown responded with a chirpy tone that made him question whether he would actually do what he agreed to.

He knew that questioning it would probably not help any however, so he decided to just ignore it in the hopes that doing so wouldn't prompt Trey to do it just to spite him.

He didn't feel too comfortable doing another set of floors in the Item World when he had no idea when he would have to go and fight his foe once again.

Meaning he'd just have to keep himself loosened up and ready for the upcoming battle.

He just hoped it wouldn't be long before he was called to fight… waiting when he could be training or taking the fight to the Overlord just felt wrong.

But he didn't want to miss the fight just because he had spent too long out of contact with the very people he was supposed to be fighting for in the first place.

At least he was sure he was a reasonable amount stronger than before, meaning he would probably be better capable of holding his own against his opponent this time.

"So… are we going to go and kill more things?" the voice of Trinity asked with her curiosity clear in her chronically chirpy tone.

"Not yet," he responded with his tiredness at having to deal with her constantly seeping into his tone, "we need to be ready for when Alyssa shows up."

"Oh yeah!" her voice perked up even more and he found himself dreading what she was going to say next, "I forgot you've got a date."

"It's not a date Trinity," he told her bluntly, "it's a duel."

"What's the difference?" the way she tilted her head in clear confusion made him want to slap his face in defeat.

Of course she wouldn't understand that there was a difference between a duel and a date.

"In one, you try to kill the other person, in the other… you try to make them happy," he explained in the hopes she would stop calling it a date.

"… but isn't this making that woman happy?" her question made him grimace, "so doesn't that make it a date?"

"No… because even if it is making her happy, that's not the goal," he explained in the hopes she'd just accept it.

"Hmm…" she mumbled in thought and he prepared himself for whatever she was going to say next, "but weren't you training so you could give her a good fight?"

"I was training because I don't want to have to use Gae Bolg," he specified for her with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, meaning give her a good fight… which would make her happy… so doesn't that make it a date?" that train of logic was completely wrong and Shirou found himself having to resist the urge to use Gae Bolg on the frustrating girl.

"Must, not, kill… must, not, kill," he proceeded to whisper to himself in an attempt at handling her insanity.

"Oh, so you're not planning on killing her," Trinity obviously overheard him and mistook his comment as being for his upcoming opponent, "that means this is definitely a date!"

"No… I'm reminding myself I mustn't kill _**you**_ ," he decided to tell her bluntly, earning a tilt of the girl's head before her smile grew even bigger.

"Oh! So that means you must really like me!" she misinterpreted his declaration that badly and Shirou found himself wondering just why she'd think he must like her if he was thinking about killing her.

… oh who was he kidding.

She was both a demon and a complete idiot… it was only natural she'd come to that conclusion.

"Trinity… just shut up," he commanded as bluntly as he could.

"'kay!" and with that, she proceeded to simply shut her mouth and smile at him with her enthusiasm still clear on her face.

It just made him want to wipe it off her face even more.

Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths in an attempt at calming down his temper before he started to go through a series of stretches.

It didn't take long for him to feel peace come over him as he felt a tension he hadn't noticed starting to drain from his muscles, clearly all the work he did had left him with too little rest and now he was feeling the ache he hadn't noticed falling away as he prepared himself to the best of his ability.

Perhaps it would be beneficial to take a break every now and then just to make sure he didn't burn himself out before he needed to fight important battles.

It might not be what he wanted to do the most, but if it helped him stay in top shape, then it could be better to have a rest on occasion even if his vitality was restored by Trey's healing.

Letting out a breath of relief, he soon opened his eyes before taking a step back upon coming face to face with Trinity staring at him with curiosity clear in her eyes.

"W-what was that for?!" he asked in shock at her sudden appearance before him.

"You looked like you really enjoyed that," she told him, "what were you thinking of? Your date?"

He felt his eye twitch at that.

"No, I was just stretching… I just didn't realize how tense I had gotten," he decided to admit.

"I heard off my big sister that sex is great for relieving tension," she stated and he found himself blushing at that even as his mind brought up memories of the night before the final battle of the Holy Grail War.

That certainly hadn't relieved any of Rin's tension with how clumsy and awkward it had been.

"Trinity… stop it," he told her bluntly.

"Stop what?"

"Talking about stupid things like that," he specified, and once again, she simply tilted her head to the side.

"… what's so stupid about that?" she asked him, and he simply groaned in irritation.

"Are you a virgin?" he asked and she seemed to chirp up once again.

"Yep!" her response was quick and to the point.

"Well I'm not," he told her as simply as he could, "so I think I know what it's like a bit better than you do."

"Ooh…" she seemed _very_ interested now and he found himself wondering if he had just made a major mistake.

"Trinity… don't ask anything," he commanded before she could say anything more.

"Hey! I don't want to intrude," Trey's voice called out and he found himself turning to face the boy, "but that warrior girl's shown up… with her boss."

Shirou found himself suddenly going stiff.

He hadn't considered the possibility of Alyssa showing up with the Overlords Daughter.

It was certainly not a good situation to be caught in.

As powerful as he had gotten, he still didn't know how he'd compared to the girl who had so easily overpowered him when they had first met.

Regardless, he was confident he would at the very least have a very hard time fighting both of them.

Despite that however, he at least had a trump card he should be able to pull out if he needed to.

How effective it would prove was questionable, but if it proved itself strong enough to harm the duo, then it would certainly give him a major advantage.

"I see… then I guess it's time," he acknowledged before he looked at Trinity who simply smiled before saying something that was definitely bad for morale.

"Right! Let's go die!"

"We're not planning on dying Trinity," he told her bluntly… he just hoped they would make it through the battle alive.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

The battlefield was clearly ready for the upcoming battle, that much Shirou could tell just from looking at the location he appeared in.

An open field with nothing to be seen outside of a few distant ruins of a non-existent ancient civilisation.

Back when he had questioned the whole 'non-existent' part, he had been told that the ruins had just been put there for decoration… they had never been used by any actual civilisation.

It was just another part of this world that had made no sense to him before.

"So, you came," a familiar voice cut in and he found his attention drawn towards one of the two people who had been waiting in the field from the beginning.

"And you brought help," he pointed out as he turned his attention from the silver haired woman to the black-haired girl who was standing not far behind her.

The expression that spread across the spear user's face made him blink in surprise given just how obvious it made it that Alyssa was annoyed by the presence of her boss.

"Yeah… my boss doesn't trust you to not cheat again," the response he got was clear and he found himself wondering if that was the only reason for her presence.

"Hmph," the physically younger of the two opponents was clearly not happy as she crossed her arms and looked away, "he shot me when my guard was down the first time we met… of course I wouldn't trust him to not cheat."

Shirou certainly couldn't argue with that reasoning.

"Still… it's good to see you levelled up like you said you would," the silver haired woman said with a jovial smile, "we should be able to have an even better fight this time!"

Shirou found himself annoyed at her using a phrase like 'levelled up', however, he couldn't stop himself from wondering just how she could tell his power had grown.

"What makes you so certain about that?" he asked with a frown.

Almost immediately, he found a silence descend upon the area.

"Wait… you don't know how to check a person's stats?" that question came from the person standing next to him and he found himself turning his attention to Trinity in response.

"You can't just 'check a person's stats'," he pointed out bluntly.

The only reason such a thing was possible with Servants was because of the Grail System monitoring the Servants and giving them arbitrary statistics so the masters could figure out the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent who was too far above them to be accurately gauged any other way.

Statistics weren't an inherent part of the world that could be easily seen without first comparing them to other things.

"Yes you can," the ice mage responded almost instantly.

"Yeah… you really are weird if you can't even look at a person's stats," he found himself turning his attention back towards the spear user who was looking at him like she hadn't seen anything like him before, "but enough of that… we've got a fight to get to!"

Shirou found himself inwardly cursing at the fact that he had ended up so distracted by the inane comments as he projected Kanshou and Byakuya once again and prepared himself for the upcoming conflict.

"Trinity, only get involved if the Overlord's daughter does," he commanded even as Alyssa took her proper stance once again.

"MY NAME IS LOTSA PLOTZ!" he was caught momentarily off guard by the cry of the younger looking foe as she threw her arms to the side in clear frustration.

"Told you he doesn't like your name," the silver haired woman seemed almost amused by the reaction.

Shirou however, found himself staring at the girl in disbelief.

Was she really that proud of a name like that?

He shook his head clear of those thoughts… this was a world filled to the brim with insanity, of course she'd be proud of it.

"I don't care," he decided to tell her bluntly.

Almost immediately, he noted the fact that the girl seemed to freeze in response to his claim.

"As far as I'm concerned, you're just the Overlord's Daughter," he declared firmly, he refused to use her name after all.

"That's just my class!" she told him almost immediately.

The fact that Alyssa still looked amused made it clear that she wasn't planning on interrupting the conversation too soon despite her obvious love of battle.

"Now if you don't mind… I've got a fight to get to," he declared as he turned his attention back to the silver haired woman.

"Well then, I guess it's time to do what we came here for," his opponent stated in response to his statement.

Almost immediately he crossed his blades and pushed them up, catching the spear that was heading in his direction and knocking it over his shoulder.

As soon as his opponent's spearhead had missed its target, he twisted his blades and pushed them down the shaft to slice at the woman.

He wasn't surprised when she managed to jump back despite the momentum that she must have put into her strike.

However, his mind was more focused on a couple of things that he now had to acknowledge.

He had managed to keep track of her attack with relative ease, showing him that he had improved enough that she was no longer outmatching him in terms of raw physical ability.

And on top of that, parrying her strike had proven a lot easier than the last time they'd fought.

Meaning he was definitely at a massive advantage excluding the presence of the Gun Toting Princess.

"Hehehehe…" the silver haired warrior chuckled in clear enjoyment of their first exchange, "it is so good to meet someone who can handle me properly."

Shirou decided against responding to that statement and instead just charged, throwing Kanshou at his foe who casually dodged it before rushing to meet his charge.

With just one blade in his hands, he found himself having an easier time parrying as having both hands on the one weapon gave him more leverage in his swings.

The downside was that he didn't have a second blade with which to make counterattacks with… yet.

"BEHIND YOU!" the voice of the Overlord's daughter cut in and almost immediately, Alyssa disengaged as she dodged to his right.

Almost immediately, he brought his hand up to catch the black blade that was trying to return to its twin.

"I thought you said you wouldn't cheat this time?" his opponent asked, and he found himself staring bluntly at her.

"No, I said I wouldn't use my instant kill spear again," he pointed out, "I never said anything about using the inherent abilities of my other weapons."

His statement seemed to make her freeze in thought for a few seconds before she stared at him again.

"Rules lawyer," she muttered, prompting him to frown in confusion.

Before anything else could be said, he felt something strike him in the side before hearing the clear bang of a gun.

The pain that reared itself in his side was obvious but nowhere near as great as it had been the first time he'd been shot indirectly by the Overlord's daughter.

While it had caused him to lose his balance, he was certainly not half dead like he had been the last time.

"Hey!" he found himself more surprised by the fact that Alyssa was the one who seemed to be protesting the Princess's interference.

"He is cheating," the girl with a bob-cut responded without delay, "so I will cheat too- AH!"

Shirou couldn't stop himself from blinking at the large chunk of ice that crashed into the girl, denoting that Trinity had finally decided to get involved.

"You took your time didn't you," he commented as he turned his attention towards his minion.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted me to do it or not," she admitted, "because you always complain about what I do."

He could feel his eye twitch at that.

She really was incapable of learning anything he tried to teach her.

"Well… this sucks," the voice of his opponent spoke out with what he could only describe as a verbal pout, "I was hoping to fight you properly."

He found himself simply facing her before shrugging in response.

"OW!" he found himself somewhat satisfied as he heard Trinity cry out in pain following the sound of a gunshot.

"Trace On," without another moment of hesitation he projected Archer's bow and Caladbolg, jumping back as Alyssa made an attempt at attacking him while he notched the makeshift arrow, "Trinity, strike Alyssa!"

He didn't want to do that but the chunk of ice striking between him and his foe gave him enough room to do what he needed to.

"I am the bone of my sword," he chanted as he pulled the arrow back, pushing himself through the steps of kyūdō as quickly as he could manage, "Caladbolg."

And with that, he pushed the Noble Phantasm to breaking point before releasing his grip on his bow, allowing the weapon to fly towards its intended target.

"NOT AGAIN!" with those two words, the shot struck the Overlords Daughter once again.

He hoped that the enhancements made by the Item World would be enough to remove her from the battle.

Regardless, he wanted to make sure the girl wouldn't kill his minion before he could resolve the issue.

"Dammit!" he found himself unsurprised when the voice of the girl cried out from the dust cloud that had been raised by the explosive force created by his attack, "that one hurt!"

He returned his attention back towards the Silver haired warrior who was still in the process of dodging blocks of ice.

"Ow ow ow!" Trinity cried out as another gunshot sounded out and the ice attacks stopped appearing, allowing his foe to rush back into his range.

He couldn't stop the grimace from spreading across his face in response to that.

One on one, he was certainly more than a match for either enemy now that he'd gotten a better idea of how strong each one was… however he had the issue of Trinity not being able to make effective decisions on her own.

Meaning he was having to worry about two enemies and trying to protect his ally.

He gritted his teeth as he made his decision.

"I am the bone of my sword," he spoke out, causing a frown of confusion to appear on his foes face.

"Wait… isn't that for your sword-arrow thing?" she asked but he ignored her.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood," the confusion only seemed to grow in her eyes as he continued his aria.

"I have created over a thousand blades," another line done and suddenly her eyes lit up in understanding.

"Wait… is this like your ultimate skill?" she asked and he found himself somewhat worried at how quickly she figured it out.

"Unaware of loss," but he wasn't going to stop or clarify it for her, he could still hear the gunshots and cries that indicated his minion was still in trouble, "nor aware of gain."

"Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one's arrival," he was nearly finished with his aria now.

Another gunshot sounded and he felt a blow from his other foe as she clearly tried to stop him from finishing his technique.

"I have no regrets," but it wouldn't be enough to stop him now, "this is the only path."

His magic circuits flared to life and he felt an internal relief as he noted that he had more than enough power to bring it out now.

"My whole life was, Unlimited Blade Works."

And with that, the world was engulfed in fire.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Alyssa couldn't stop herself from looking at the skill her enemy had used.

She felt disappointed.

Was Infinite Graves really the strongest skill he knew?

"Are you serious?" she asked him with her disappointment clear in her tone, "I thought you'd use something a bit more impressive than Infinite Graves."

"I don't know what infinite graves is," he responded and she found her curiosity piqued, "but this is where our battle ends."

She was about to call him out on that when he raised his hand… and about seven hundred weapons appeared, hanging in the air around him.

That wasn't how Infinite Graves worked.

Especially not with such a large number of different weapons… and now that she thought about it, there were a few too many weapons around to be that particular skill…

Oh…

"Oh… damn," were the only words that left her lips as she realized she'd seriously underestimated this technique.

"Yeah…" and with that, the boy brought his hand down… and the rain of steel started.

Never before had she been so overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacks she was now being subjected to… admittedly, most of them were rather weak, but the sheer number of them was unending.

She just hoped Lotsa wasn't being targeted like she was.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Lotsa Plotz was most certainly not having a good day.

She had witnessed her minions foe cheat with a boomerang sword, an act that had made her decide to interfere.

Then she'd been struck by the Blue Mage's magic before getting another one of those swords to her face.

This one had been much more powerful… not enough to defeat her, but still far more powerful than the first one she'd been hit with.

Then Emiya Shirou had started to chant and she found herself noticing that the chant had started off the same way as his attack on her… and then carried on quite a bit, meaning his skill was probably much stronger.

Then the world had changed into a desolate wasteland filled with bladed weapons that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Alyssa had called it Infinite Graves… but she knew that was wrong as soon as that had come out of her mouth.

This was not such a simple skill.

Then the swords had appeared in the sky and she had found herself getting ready to strike the boy once again… and then the rain had started.

The sheer number of weapons that had been flung at her was ridiculous… she had managed to defend herself from the first few but then… then she'd been pelted with steel.

While the weapons weren't all that powerful, they had been shot at her with a force great enough to harm her.

Death by a thousand cuts seemed like a likely outcome.

She was unable to move anywhere.

She was getting cut everywhere as she tried to defend herself.

Alyssa was struggling with her own onslaught.

And there was no end in sight.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

She didn't want to die.

She didn't want to die.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou didn't like what he was doing.

It made him feel too much like Archer or Gilgamesh for his liking.

But it was proving an effective measure against his foes so he would keep doing it until-

"STOP!" the voice of the Overlord's daughter cried out and he froze as the onslaught ended.

Not because she had told him to stop… but because of the tone of voice that she'd cried out in.

He took his eyes off his now bleeding foe as he turned to look the Overlord's daughter.

She was now on her knees, her body shaking and tears falling from her eyes.

Her tone hadn't been fake.

She was genuinely scared.

He felt his heart twist as he realized the simple fact that he had managed to break a person's will with his Reality Marble.

Turning to face Alyssa again, he noted the fact that while she wasn't suffering a breakdown at the situation, there was a hint of fear in her eyes that hadn't been there before.

Then again, with his reality marble deployed, what should've been an intense and close fight, had become a one-sided massacre.

There was no fun or honour to be found in being crushed like that.

Taking a deep breath, he started to move towards the girl who had sent people after him just because she wanted Rho Aias.

As soon as she noticed him walking towards her, her posture started to shrink in on itself and he found himself subconsciously relaxing at that display of submission.

"S-stop it," the voice of the warrior spoke weakly even as she tried to get up again.

"Should I kill them boss?" the voice of Trinity piped in and he shook his head in the negative, earning a whine of disappointment from the girl.

"You…" he found himself struggling to do what he was about to, but it felt like the sort of situation where doing so was necessary, "Lotsa Plotz."

He couldn't stop himself from feeling dirty as he said her name, however, her gaze rose to him and he knew what he had to do.

"I'll give you a choice," he spoke as firmly as he could manage even as he did something he was sure would be considered stupid by anyone else, "you can either die here… or swear yourself to me."

"S-s-swear myself to you?" she repeated, and he found himself frowning as her voice rose in pitch and her face started to flush with obvious embarrassment.

"It's your choice," he told her bluntly, prompting her to splutter a couple of times before nodding her head lightly.

"I-I'll swear myself to you," she acknowledged, and he found himself being inwardly grateful at that acquiescence.

"And what of you Alyssa?" he turned his attention towards the soldier who seemed to sag in relief, "will you join your master under me?"

"Yeah… I still want a fair fight though," she told him, and he found himself almost smiling at that.

Now, he just hoped there was some way to ensure neither of them betrayed him.

He had the feeling Trey wouldn't be too willing to help.

So… maybe Adari would know something he could use?

It wouldn't hurt to try.

XXX Preview: Next Time XXX

Trinity: "Disaster strikes!"

Shirou: "What? Where?"

Trinity: "The Mayors daughter and her bodyguard have gone missing!"

Shirou: "… there's a mayor here?"

Trinity: "There is only one person who knows the truth… undercover detective Trinity!"

Shirou: "Trinity, you're not smart enough to be a detective."

Trinity: "The truth that they've fallen into the nefarious arms of the infamous Pimp Emiya!"

Shirou: "… what are you on about?"

Trinity: "Trapped in a sex dungeon, there is no telling what sort of deviant acts he'll inflict upon their innocent bodies as he trains them to be his personal sex slaves!"

Lotsa: "S-sex slave?"

Alyssa: "Hey, as long as I get my fight, I'm game for it."

Shirou: "WHAT?!"

Trinity: "Will Undercover Detective Trinity be able to save them before they lose their minds? Or will she be found out and captured too? And if so, what sort of horrific things will happen to her afterwards?! Find out next time, on Detective Trinity And Pimp-master Emiya!"

Shirou: "What do you mean 'next time'?! And who are you even talking to?"

* * *

And that's all for today.

For those who've played a Disgaea game, I'm sure you understand why the last segment was there.

But anyway... for now...

Shadow out.


	8. Chapter 8

Well... I'm back.

Firstly, I'm going to answer a few reviews:

Jimbobob5536: Please, don't give her any ideas... she's already pushed herself above her station.

Paxloria: The Disgaea Anime is a very loose adaption of the first game... beyond that, in the video game franchise, there are also:

Disgaea 2, Disgaea 3, Disgaea 4, Disgaea D2, Disgaea 5, Phantom Brave, Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome, Soul Nomad and the World Eaters, Prinny: Can I really be the Hero?, Zettai Hero Project, La Pucelle Tactics and Disgaea Infinite.

There may be more that I'm not aware of, but that's all I can name off the top of my head.

Guest: Not exactly... they're not actually meant to be anyone else.

cj1of4: Actually, he currently does have an Evility... he just doesn't realise it... as for the Gender Change Evility, he'd have to learn how to equip it in the first place for it to take effect.

Magus of Dream: That only applies to Trinity... because she's annoyed him that much.

fray100: I'll be honest... I'm still trying to decide on that.

allen Vth: Indeed, he most certainly could have.

Impstar: The issue with Trinity... is that she was never meant to be so important... she's just meant to be a generic unit and not a main character... so the fact that she's managed to push herself into the latter role makes that a bit more awkward.

Anyway... that's all for now, so let's get on with the fic.

* * *

"I'm being serious here Trinity," Shirou said as they returned to the house with the two new members of the group in tow, "what was with all that 'detective' nonsense you were spouting before?"

"What do you mean?" she responded with confusion clear in her tone, giving him the same response she had given all the previous times he had asked.

"You two," he directed towards the Overlord's daughter and Alyssa, "didn't she talk about being a detective, me being a 'pimp' and you being turned into sex slaves?"

"No," the duo answered without delay, causing him to freeze in disbelief.

He _knew_ they had commented on it when Trinity was blurting it out… so why were they suddenly acting like they had no idea what he was talking about?

"You talked about it when she said it," he told them with a blank expression.

"What are you talking about?" the silver haired warrior responded without hesitation and he found himself silently wondering just how short term their memory was.

"… you don't even remember," he stated with disbelief before he shook his head and proceeded to turn his attention back towards the house he had just returned to.

"Welcome back Emiya-kun," the voice of Adari called out and he found himself wondering just how the plant-like demon would react to seeing the Overlord's daughter once again, "hello again, Princess Plotz."

The complete lack of surprise in the former greengrocer's tone made him wonder if it had been expecting him to do this.

"You don't seem surprised," he pointed out, earning a shrug off the green skinned creature.

"Well… she's a unique character… she'd naturally join you at _some_ point in the story," Adari's response made him blink.

Then he facepalmed.

"I'm surrounded by idiots."

"I-I'm not an idiot," the voice of the Overlord's daughter called out and he found himself silently questioning that given that she had chosen to leave him alive just because he had a pink shield.

"That's debateable," he declared bluntly.

"Then I'll prove I'm not!" she declared and he found himself raising an eyebrow at that.

If this world had taught him anything, it was that demons were idiots.

And she was a demon.

So the chances of her being an idiot were high.

However… there was something he could use if she was willing to try and prove herself to him.

"If you want to prove yourself, then set up an Innocent Farm," he told her bluntly.

He noted the way she looked surprised before another voice cut in.

"No," Trey spoke firmly and he once again turned to the boy with irritation at the refusal to use whatever was necessary to win, "it's too early for you to get something like that."

"And what about an assembly?" he asked, earning a sigh off the healer.

"What would you even use it for?" the boy asked but he simply narrowed his eyes.

"You're the one who's supposed to explain that too me," he pointed out.

"Look, if you're not going to listen, then you're going to have to find someone else to heal you," Shirou found himself surprised by that declaration.

To be so against him asking about these facilities that he would refuse to heal him really was extreme.

"… fine," he conceded.

"Good," the boy said with a satisfied smirk, "trying to bypass the effort to grow stronger isn't something a main character should do."

And once again, Shirou found his eye twitching at that.

"Huh? But isn't being overpowered the whole point of this series?" Alyssa spoke with confusion and Shirou found himself once again twitching in irritation.

"Of course not!" the Overlord's Daughter cried out immediately, "the struggle to reach that point is why the story exists… the overpowered part is only supposed to come in during the post-game."

"Yep… definitely surrounded by idiots."

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from sighing as he moved through the backyard.

He really needed some time alone to try and stabilise his sanity after all the crazy he had just experienced.

He had finally managed to bring out Unlimited Blade Works on his own, to a degree that even Archer hadn't been able to simply through the sheer raw power he now possessed as a demon.

Beyond that however, had been Alyssa's lack of surprise.

Meaning there were some things that demons could do that were similar to a reality marble… he really shouldn't have been surprised… but it had still been a shock to see a demon dismiss it just like Gilgamesh had done back when they had fought.

Of course, he had once again won, though this time had been _much_ easier than against the arrogant king.

"So… how did you find that battle Emiya Shirou-san?" a young and feminine voice he didn't recognize called out and he found himself turning to face the direction it had come from.

He was certain it had come from the edge of a roof not far away, but there was no-one there.

"Did you enjoy the feeling of power as you held their lives in your hand?" the voice continued from directly behind him and he turned to face the owner only to once again find nothing.

"Who are you?" he barked out, silently worried about the power of this foe if they could overcome his senses so easily.

"Someone who is _very_ interested in you," the girls voice spoke with amusement, "but enough about me… what about you?"

He frowned at that as he wondered just who this stranger was.

"Did you like the rush you got when you reduced my big sister to a sobbing wreck?" sobbing wreck?

His blood ran cold as he realized who his current foe was.

"So… you're the Overlord's Youngest Daughter," he concluded easily, even as he considered just how much more intimidating this was than anything the older sister had done.

"Hehehehe…" the chuckle that came from all around him was filled with a hint of jovial malice that he could honestly say was rare for anyone to achieve, "it is so good to see you're not an idiot, Shirou-kun."

The way the invisible foe said his name made him feel as if he had just been violated.

At least he could think of a way to overcome whatever trick she was using… he just hoped it would work how he wanted it to.

"Trace on," he whispered before pushing his structural analysis into the ground and looking for any indications there was another person on the ground near him.

"Oh? Don't bother trying to find me… I'm very good at remaining invisible," she proclaimed but he simply drew Kanshou from the Unlimited Blade Works and stabbed to his left.

"WAAHHH!"

He noted the fact that her feet took a few steps back at his thrust before he turned to face her, pushing his analysis into the air consistency as he visualized the area where the air let a humanoid shaped gap.

"L-lucky shot!" the girl spoke but he proceeded to bring out Byakuya and swing at the human shaped space with no air, causing it to tilt in response.

So he simply thrust his blade straight at where she had moved.

"W-what?!" once again she proceeded to take a couple of steps back and he prepared another attack before he recognized the arm movement the girl made as that of someone throwing a dagger.

Tilting out of the way, he felt the invisible blade fly past his face as his foe put some distance between them.

"Dammit… how are you doing that?" the girl asked and he simply raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I tell you?" he responded bluntly.

"Heh… most people would be more than happy to brag about that," she answered him and he simply looked right at where she was.

"Well… I'm not most people," he stated firmly.

"I know… you're the handsome sadist I have my eyes on after all!" that statement was said with pride clear in her tone.

Shirou however could do little more than blink in disbelief.

"Excuse me?" he found himself wondering if he misheard her.

"I said, you're the handsome sadist I have my eyes on," she repeated and he processed it once again.

"That statement is wrong on so many levels," he stated blandly.

That was almost as ridiculous as that one time Taiga had confronted him about being friends with Shinji because she thought he just wanted to be around the girls that followed the boy around.

"Really?" the voice clearly didn't sound impressed, "and what makes you think you aren't handsome?"

Shirou honestly found himself wondering if she was trying to bait him or not.

But he would continue speaking anyway.

"That part isn't something I care about," he stated as firmly as he could, "it's the 'sadist' part that I'm arguing."

"Heh… really?" the voice once again responded, "because I would beg to differ."

Shirou found himself growing annoyed of the girl already.

"But enough of me simply _saying_ you're a sadist," her voice cut in once more, "simply saying it isn't enough… what I have to do is _prove_ to you that you are one."

Shirou was about to charge at her once more, but she proceeded to leap onto one of the roofs.

"But bye for now," her voice cut in once more, "I've got plans to set in motion after all."

And with that, the presence vanished and Shirou found himself silently worried about whatever trial he was about to undergo.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" the voice of Trey resounded through the area and Shirou found himself releasing a sigh as he moved to deal with whatever issue was being raised.

Looking at the sight before him, he found himself blinking a couple of times at the presence of several new houses littering the clearing that had somehow been expanded since he had left.

However, it was the solidly built, medieval European style castle that really stood out to him.

He was sure he hadn't been away long enough for that to happen.

"This hovel is too small for the home base of the Future Overlord!" the Overlord's daughter proclaimed, and he found himself blinking in surprise at that declaration.

… was she already declaring him to be the next Overlord?

"This is _my_ home!" the healer he had met before responded without hesitation.

"That is irrelevant," the horned girl responded firmly, before pointing towards the castle " _this_ shall be the Future Overlord's new home from now on… and if it becomes too small, then it shall simply be extended."

"Prinny…" he spoke with a detached air before noting the blue penguin like creature appear next to him, "how long was I gone?"

"A few minutes dood!" the Prinny responded instantly.

That made him blink.

"Then how did all that get there?" he asked in confusion.

"Prinny Squad dood," the tortured soul responded easily, "they're really fast once they get to work dood."

That was probably the understatement of the century.

"Oh, hello Shirou-sama!" he almost had to blink at the sudden call from the Overlord's Oldest Daughter, "I have arranged for a castle to be built for you."

"That's… uh… nice," he finally settled on, before he shook his head clear and decided to ask an important question, "anyway… I need to ask you about your sister."

Suddenly the girl's face darkened.

"Why?" she was clearly not happy, but he had already beaten her once.

"Because she just started harassing me," he informed her bluntly, causing her eyes to blink several times as the dark look left her features.

"Oh… well then, I suppose we can call a war meeting in the castle can't we?" she suggested and he found himself wary of an ambush.

"You're calling a war meeting?" Trey spoke with his anger still clear in his tone.

"Of course," the black haired girl acknowledged without delay, "however, it is only for those who are Shirou-sama's council."

"… what?" he found himself asking in confusion.

Last time he checked, he didn't have a council.

"Only the council can participate in the war meeting," Alyssa spoke without delay, "and right now… the council consists of Emiya-sama, Lotsa-sama, myself, Trinity-san and Adari-san."

"Hoi! What about me?!" Trey spoke up in annoyance.

"What about you?" the response by the Overlord's daughter was a clear dismissal.

Shirou however found himself inwardly happy with that.

As much as Trey may have helped him since he had gotten there, he was proving himself to be the biggest obstacle between him and his accumulation of power.

Of course, it all depended on how the group that was part of the so called 'council' would handle his demands.

"Hey! Emiya-san," the boy directed his attention towards him, "you're not going to exclude me from it are you?"

"He has no reason to include you," Lotsa… good lord… did he just think her name? said with a sense of dismissal, "I have gotten him a new healer that will live inside the castle."

Shirou found himself blinking at that declaration.

He had been so used to being treated by Trey that the mere thought of having another healer sounded completely alien to him now.

However, it also meant he didn't have to worry about being kept from healing just because Trey didn't agree with some of his decisions.

"Sorry Trey… but I want to win this war," he proclaimed easily, earning a firm nod off the girl who had arranged everything for him.

Admittedly, he would have preferred to have had a traditional Japanese style in stead of the European style he was seeing before him.

"Well… I guess it's time to deal with this 'war meeting'," he said as he moved to enter the castle, noting the gargoyles that were located at either side of the gate.

They were certainly detailed, he would almost think they were alive.

Then one nodded at him and he realized that they were indeed alive.

"… are they soldiers of yours?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Nah, they're just hired guards," Alyssa admitted without delay, "they're here for money and the chance to guard a future Overlord."

He found himself unsurprised by that.

Otherwise it would raise the question of why they hadn't fought him before.

The fact that they stopped Trey from entering the castle was proof that they were taking their current job seriously.

"Hey!" the boy cried out in clear irritation, "is this the thanks I get for helping you so much?!"

Shirou certainly did feel guilty for leaving the boy, but he had more important matters to deal with right now and Trey was proving to be more of a hindrance than a help with them.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Entering a Throne Room wasn't something he ever expected to do, but here he was, entering the rather spacious hall with a decent size throne and a red carpet leading up to it.

However, there were other matters that caught his attention, namely the people and facilities that were lining the walls leading up to the throne.

One was of course, the Item Worlder who was waving towards him with a cheeky grin while standing in front of a green portal.

He almost did a double-take upon seeing another person who looked exactly like the item worlder standing before a blue portal.

Then there was the Rosen Queen representative, in front of a stall of weapons and armour.

Adari was also there, standing before what looked like an animal pen.

Then there was the blonde woman in a black dress with white frills that was standing near what was clearly a hospital bed, probably the new healer.

There was also another unfamiliar woman with a long blonde ponytail who looked like she was wearing a navy blue trenchcoat and glasses, standing before what he recognized as an active dimensional gate due to the white colour.

And lastly, there was an unfamiliar girl with blue hair roughly the same length as Lotsa's but with a bang covering her right eye, leaving her red left eye to stare blankly at the world. She also had a red ribbon in her hair that almost looked like rabbit ears.

She was also wearing a white sleeveless dress with a red rim, and matching loose sleeves and stockings… she was also carrying a stuffed rabbit toy for some reason.

"So who is everyone?" he asked wondering just how many facilities he had just gained access to.

"I'm sure you know about Rosen Queen and the Item Worlder," Lotsa said and he found himself frowning at how easily her name was coming to him now that he had let the floodgate go, "the twin is the Chara Worlder… think of her as being like the Item Worlder for People."

He snapped his head towards her in disbelief.

"Of course, she only helps improve potential… so you'll have to train to make the most of it," she told him and he found himself still amazed at the mere idea of having access to something like that.

"The woman with the black dress is the new healer," she continued, "while she may charge for her services, she won't refuse your custom unless you have no money."

Shirou found himself silently wondering just how that would affect his ability to afford better equipment… before remembering that he had already accumulated a decent bit of money just from all his trips into the Item World.

"The professor there is in charge of the dimensional gate," she continued, pointing towards the woman with the glasses, "and Pleinair there is in charge of the Dark Assembly."

Shirou followed where she was pointing him and noted the girl with the red ribbon.

"She's a mute, but Usagi can usually speak in her place," the girl informed him and he found himself about to ask when he figured it out.

Demon Stuffed Rabbit.

"And what about Adari?" he asked, earning a laugh off the person he just commented on.

"I'm here as an Innocent Farmer," he immediately turned his sole attention onto the demonic plant, "not everyone here cares about sticking to the rules."

He could feel the relief spread through his body as he realized he wouldn't have to deal with Trey preventing him from progressing at his own pace.

"In that case," he said as he pulled out Kanshou and Byakuya, "can you take the statisticians out of these and start raising them as much as you can?"

"Of course Emiya-kun," the Alraune spoke without delay, "I guess this means I won't have time to grow anymore oranges though."

"That's fine," he responded without delay, "these take priority."

"Okay then," and with that, Adari proceeded to remove the Innocents from his weapons and placed them in the pen.

Despite everything however, there was a single issue he needed to address.

"Why did you do this?" he asked as he faced the Overlord's Daughter.

She had no reason to go this far out of her way to aid him and it was clear that she was being serious about her attempts, even giving him access to facilities he hadn't even heard of before.

"It is only natural for a wife to support her husband with all her might," she declared, and he found himself blinking in response.

"… wait… what did you just say?" he was certain he misheard that.

"I said, 'it is only natural for a wife to support her husband with all her might'," she repeated and he found himself wondering just what was going on.

"Wait… why are you calling yourself my wife?" he needed to understand just why she was referring to herself in such a manner.

"… you demanded that I swear myself to you… doesn't that make me your wife?" her words reverberated through his head as he considered the situation.

For once, he honestly couldn't say she was _insane_ for thinking that was the case… because he could see exactly where her logic came from.

He just hadn't meant it like that.

"T-that wasn't what I meant…" he stumbled over his words as he tried to think of a way to explain his intention without it coming off as callous.

"W-what?" she seemed almost like she was dreading what he was about to say.

"I… I just meant that you were to swear your loyalty to me…" he explained, "I never meant for you to take it the way you did."

"Wait…" Trinity spoke up and he found himself dreading what she was about to say, "do you mean you admit _you_ messed up with that one?"

He almost froze at the fact that her question was perfectly reasonable.

"Yeah, I admit, it was my fault for wording my sentence wrong," he admitted, causing the Ice Mage's eyes to widen in disbelief.

"Y-you admitted you were wrong instead of blaming it on us," the mere fact that he was willing to do that seemed to completely go over her head.

"Trinity… I'm not afraid to admit I was wrong about something like that," he pointed out, "I'm just not prepared to accept the insanity you seem to want to infect me with."

"Heh," he turned to see Alyssa looking on in amusement, "so… you were talking about 'sex slaves' earlier."

He noted the massive blush that seemed to spread on Lotsa's face at that statement even as she seemed to prod her fingers together nervously.

"That's because Trinity kept talking about me turning you into them," he pointed out.

"No she didn't," and once again, his frustration grew at their complete denial of that event happening.

"I-if you plan to make me a 'sex slave'…" Lotsa spoke up and he found himself silently trying to process her demeanour, "can you at least refer to me as a concubine… and show me your shield again?"

He honestly didn't know how to respond to that request.

He had no intention of turning her into a concubine or sex slave or anything like that… but she was being rather accepting of the idea.

… then again, she had apparently decided to fully dedicate herself to him as a wife simply from a misinterpretation of his demand of subservience.

So perhaps she was actually looking forward to having a man in her life?

He wasn't going to make that assumption, it would simply be a theory until it was confirmed one way or another.

… it also raised the question of exactly _why_ he seemed to attract the Overlord's daughters if what the younger daughter had said was anything to go by.

"Enough…" he declared as he rubbed his temples to ease the headache that was threatening to split his skull in two, "we have a war conference to hold."

"True," Alyssa admitted without delay.

"But we were just getting to the really juicy part!" Trinity cried out, earning a glare off him in response.

"Enough Trinity… we have more important matters to deal with," he stated firmly.

"'kay…" she seemed to deflate at that.

"Now… is there a table anywhere?" he asked, earning a nod off the horned princess.

"It's in the room on the right," she told him and he nodded in acknowledgement as he started to move towards the room at the side.

He just hoped everything went properly.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou had to admit, the seat that had been assigned to him was most certainly comfortable.

Of course, the fact that it was at the head of the excessively large, rectangular table and the other end was currently unoccupied made it all feel far lonelier than he'd probably have expected… even with his newly formed 'council' also seated at the table.

"So what do you know about the Overlord's Youngest Daughter?" he decided to ask the most important question of them all given the current situation.

"She's a master of stealth," Alyssa spoke up without delay, "she's also pretty deadly when it comes to throwing knives at people."

"Honestly, simply hitting her in battle is nearly impossible," the silver haired girl stated with an annoyed pout.

"That's fine," he acknowledged, "I've got a way around her invisibility, so I'll deal with her myself."

That statement seemed to surprise the two people who already knew the other daughter.

"S-so then… what is this meeting about then?" Lotsa asked and he found himself releasing a sigh.

"… I think your sister might have a crush on me," he declared bluntly.

Silence reigned after that.

"Huh… I guess you'll aim to add her to your ever-expanding harem," Trinity broke the silence and Shirou found himself wanting to throttle the girl yet again, "does that mean you'll do _both_ sisters at the same time?"

Shirou actually found himself amazed that he had already expected her to make a comment about that… it did go to show that even he could learn.

It didn't change the fact that he wanted to strangle her.

"W-w-what?" the older of the Overlord's daughters was clearly unsure of what to think about that if her wide eyed stuttering was anything to go by.

"Trinity… right now, I'm more concerned with whatever she's planning on doing," he stated firmly, "because she said something about having plans in place for me."

That was naturally the most worrying part.

Especially since he didn't know how long she'd been watching him.

He knew she had at the very least seen inside Unlimited Blade Works but that was all he could determine without more information.

The fact that she thought he _enjoyed_ breaking her sister's will was the most worrying part.

It really spoke about how twisted she was that she seemed to have a crush on someone who she knew nearly killed her sister.

"… well…" Alyssa spoke with a frown of her own, "you're screwed."

He did not appreciate that opinion.

"Why are you saying that?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"Because she's got a _much_ stronger army than Lotsa did," the silver haired warrior stated without hesitation, "plus, she's actually stronger than me or Lotsa _without_ her invisibility."

He frowned at that, obviously that meant that the only reason he had done as well as he had was because she had been caught off guard by his ability to overcome her stealth.

Meaning their next battle would be far less favourable for him.

"So what is she likely to do against me?" he asked, earning a thoughtful frown off his new foes sister.

"Well… if we knew what her goal was then we'd be better able to figure out her endgame," the 'captive' Princess stated with a hint of annoyance.

He really didn't want to have to admit this… but it was necessary given the situation.

He just knew Trinity wouldn't let him live it down.

"She seems to think I'm a Sadist and in denial about it," he told them, causing them all to blink, "she said she'd 'prove' to me that I am."

"… I got nothing," Alyssa was the first to speak and he found himself releasing another sigh of frustration at that.

"So… does that mean you _are_ a sadist?" Trinity's voice cut in.

"No," he responded automatically, he wasn't in denial about being a sadist… he knew for a _fact_ that he couldn't stand watching others suffer.

Sure, he was more than capable of cutting down foes but that was just something he did, he felt nothing from taking down those that needed to be taken down.

… perhaps that was the source of her misunderstanding.

Perhaps she mistook his ability to kill his emotions and do whatever is necessary as him being a closet sadist.

That sort of stupidity would be right up there in the sort of ridiculousness he had come to expect from this world.

"So… any ideas on what she might do?" he asked, causing the Former Princess to rub her chin in thought.

"… well… if it was me, I'd probably do one of two things," she started to say and he found himself listening carefully, "either send a lot of minions after you so you could kill them… or set up an elaborate trap designed to make you inflict suffering on an innocent in order to escape."

He honestly found himself focusing on the latter option.

If the goal was to try and prove to someone that they're a sadist, then forcing them to inflict pain on an innocent seemed like the more efficient method of doing so.

Which naturally resulted in the rather awkward matter of what he would do if he _was_ forced to do something like that?

In the end there wasn't really any choice.

If he simply refused to do anything, then that would just cause further death and suffering throughout the Netherworld.

Meaning he would just have to go through with it if there was no way to get out without doing so.

He hoped he didn't end up in such a situation… but it wasn't impossible for him to end up with that issue.

"I see," he decided to simply acknowledge the possibility.

"What do you intend to do if you are put into that sort of position?" the voice of Adari cut in and he found himself facing it with a serious expression.

"If I end up trapped with no way out except to inflict pain on another," he spoke with his resolve in his tone, "then I will do so."

He hadn't expected Adari to smile in response to that.

The surprised expressions on the faces of Lotsa and Alyssa were far more anticipated… as was the completely oblivious expression on Trinity's face.

"I thought you said you were an Anti-Sadist?" the former princess spoke with a contemplative expression.

"It's more important to be around to stop the Overlo-" he started to say before remembering who he was talking to, "your father… if that means doing something I hate… then so be it."

Surprisingly, that seemed to draw a smile from the girl.

"Good," she proclaimed and he found himself blinking, "if you didn't have the conviction to do whatever it took to win, then I would have to re-evaluate my loyalty to you."

That made sense.

The idea of following someone who lacked conviction wasn't a particularly pleasant thought after all.

He just hoped he could put that conviction into action when the moment called for it.

"… all right," he spoke as he came to his decision on what they would do, "for now, I want people watching over the world, if there are any incidents then let me know."

"Of course Emiya-sama," the rest of the table responded immediately.

"While that is going on…" he spoke up, hoping what he was about to suggest was viable or not, "me, Trinity, Lotsa and Alyssa will be doing some more training in the item world."

He noted the surprised looks on everyone's faces as he finished his commands.

"… what?" he asked in confusion.

"You actually said my name," the Overlord's daughter pointed out and he grimaced, "you actually said my name without hesitating."

She suddenly looked somewhat happy.

"Does that mean you are happy with my performance in my duties to you so far?" she asked and he found himself glancing away as he remembered what she initially considered her place to be.

"W-well… you've definitely done more in the short time you've been here than anyone else," he admitted, earning a hopeful expression off the girl.

"Then can I receive a reward?" she asked and he found himself about to protest before his mind stalled.

There was something he would be able to give her.

"Do you have a bedroom here?" he asked before noting the way her face flushed in response.

"Oh! Are you going to use her now?" Trinity spoke and he found himself quickly punching her on the top of the head, "OW!"

"It has nothing to do with that," he declared bluntly, "I just think I have something I can give her but it'll have to go in her room."

She was proving herself so far… so he would give her a reward he was sure she'd appreciate.

He just needed to figure out how to keep Rho Aias active when hanging on a wall.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Meena Plotz was pissed.

Her invisibility was supposed to be impossible to see through and yet, Emiya Shirou had done so with ease.

While that only made him a more valuable find, it also meant her skill at remaining hidden wasn't as infallible as she had thought it to be.

Meaning she would have to identify exactly how he had seen through her skill (which he was unwilling to share with her), and then figure out how to overcome that flaw.

Then on top of that, she needed to finish setting up her tricks to try and get him to realise he was a sadist.

Once that was done… well, she might be able to take him to her father.

At which point one of four outcomes could happen.

The first, he would approve of Emiya as a candidate for her husband.

The second, he would disapprove of him and destroy him then and there.

The third, he would disapprove but fail to destroy him.

And the fourth and final outcomes… was that he wouldn't even remember who she was and it would all be pointless.

She was hoping for the first option, as if that happened then that would also mean she would own her big sister and have a bigger chunk of the army at her disposal… sure it would still only make up about a third of the army's numbers and less than a tenth of its strength, but it would be better than what she had right then.

It was all just a matter of getting Emiya to join her.

* * *

And that is all for now... hope you all enjoyed it.

Shadow out.


End file.
